Love Me Dead
by hobbitgirl05
Summary: Emma Winchester has always wanted to live a normal life.  But what happens when a certain candy loving archangel starts to feel a connection with the third Winchester, and gives her that wish?
1. Prologue

Emma Winchester wasn't afraid of much. Growing up in a family of hunters left a person almost too prepared for some of "life's little mysteries", and people either learnt to repress their fear, or run away screaming to the nearest insane asylum.

That didn't mean anything about being able to fight though. She wasn't afraid of things because she was able to put a face to the thing hiding under her bed (or in a lake, the forest, ect.), and that in itself was half the battle. In the Winchester family, Emma seemed to come in at the shallow end of the gene pool. Her father, deceased mother and her two brothers were all better fighters than she was, and she knew the reason why. She was a klutz. She was able to defend herself and a few others decently enough, but she just didn't have the grace and edge on the battle field that her family had. Also, she was _short_, and she still didn't see how that was possible since Dean, her parents and grandparents were all tall, and Sam was a freaking _giant_. She had proven herself useful on hunts though, as she was excellent at speaking and translating latin, and could do research better and faster than anyone, even Sam.

Emma couldn't remember ever having a normal life. Her mother had been killed by a demon when she was three years old, and after that, her childhood took place largely in the back seat of the family Impala with Sam. Her father never said as much, but she knew he wished she had the skills that her brothers had in fighting. She was trained just as hard as Sam and Dean, but she always managed to stumble during what was supposed to be a killing blow, or some other catastrophe that would have led to her death long ago if not for her siblings and father. Her father had managed to teach her enough basic defense moves to keep her alive, and she was mostly left behind on a majority of the family hunts.

After Sam left the family business behind for college, Emma's father had gotten even harder to deal with. If he had been moody before, he was Dr. Jeckyl now, with an emphasis on the Hyde part. Soon after that, Emma also left her family behind, but instead of leaving the only life she knew behind, she went to help their fellow hunter, Bobby, out. She was able to run a large part of the telephones that helped undercover hunters all over the country keep up their fake I.D's and their covers safe if any local police called. Her father thought she should be helping him and Dean find the demon that had killed her mother, but he was so mad at Sam leaving his life behind that he was just relieved that she was still technically in the family business. In her spare time, she worked at a diner, and even though she was happy and safer, she missed going on what few hunts her father had let her on, and just _helping _people.

One day though, Dean showed up in the diner, and Sam was with him. Her baby brother had never looked worse. Not saying anything, she led them to the back of the diner and had Dean explain everything that had happened.

_Ok, yeah, I know this is crap, but I am really hoping it gets better, I just wanted to get the backstory out of the way. _

_Disclaimer-If I owned Supernatural, I would not be writing fan fiction. It and all its characters belong to Eric Kripke._


	2. The Show

_All right here's the plan. I haven't seen the first three seasons of Supernatural in a VERY long time. Way too long. So I don't really remember a lot of the details, and I won't have a lot of time to go and rewatch them for a while. So what I'm going to do is continue the main story that I set out to do, and if people like it, I will go back and add chapters that happen before that relate to episodes in the seasons, but don't necessarily add to the main plot. Is that ok? Let me know what all of you think, reviews make me write much faster! Anyways, this takes place during Tall Tales._

Emma loved her brothers. Dearly. She would honestly die for either of them in a heartbeat. But sometimes they could be a great big bag of dicks. Both of them. Neither of them had figured out that she wasn't a little girl anymore, and that she could in fact decide for herself how to deal with things. Or people. It was their fault she had never been on more than two dates with any one guy growing up, what with Sam scaring them off just by silently brooding and looking like an enormous-bone-crushing giant, or Dean making them pee themselves if they even tried to hold her hand in front of him.

"Dude, you mind not eating those on my bed?" Sam asked Dean, annoyed.

"Nah, I don't mind" Dean replied, stuffing another handful of chili cheese fries in his mouth. Emma was thinking about how she wanted nothing more than to grab said fries and shove the entire thing down his throat, while her brothers continued to bicker.

"Emma, could please help me out here?" Sam asked as the radio besides Dean suddenly got louder.

"What? I can't hear you. See, if I had my phone, you could text it to me, but, oh wait, you threw it out the window, remember?" Emma replied, holding a bag of ice against the giant purple goose egg on the right side of her forehead.

"I didn't throw it, Dean knocked it out of my hand, and it just happened to-" Sam's answer was cut off by a knocking at the door.

"Hey Bobby," all three Winchesters said, as the older man hugged Emma, and shook the boys' hands. "Thank god you're here," Dean said, "we didn't want to talk about this case over the phone we weren't sure you'd believe us."

"Well, I can believe a lot. Why don't you start at the beginning?"

As Sam started telling Bobby about the first night in the bar, Emma thought about what happened to her that night.

While the boys were out investigating what had happened by talking to some students at the local dive bar, Emma was searching around the grounds for some clues around the building where the college professor had jumped. Grabbing her pocket knife out of her bag, she walked to the nearest window and looked up, prepared to jimmie the lock. Unfortunately, although the windows were fairly close to the ground, but there was absolutely no way she would be able to reach the lock. Cursing her short stature silently, she ran to the other side of the building to the back door. It was locked, obviously.

Emma was preparing to take off her jacket to protect her had while she broke a window when she heard a voice behind her.

"What are you doing here so late?" Emma whirled around. Behind her was a man in his early 30's, presumably the night shift janitor. Emma thought he was a bit shady looking, but maybe that would make him a bit easier to charm, if it came to that. Hopefully it wouldn't. He was holding a mop and looking at her curiously, but with a hint of suspicion.

"Hi!" Emma replied a bit too chirpily, extremely thankful he hadn't arrived a minute later. "Thank god you're here! I just got off work down the street when my brother called me. He's a student here, and apparently he forgot his flash drive inside. He said it had all of his homework in it, including a 'super huge paper.' Apparently, it's due tomorrow." Emma rolled her eyes at the silliness of her imaginary college sibling, as if to say,_ 'Kids. Whatcha gonna do?',_ even though she was only a couple years older than said kids. "Anyway, his car is broken and he lives at home way across town, and he was hoping that I could pick it up for him. Do you think you could let me in," she glanced down at his name tag, "Charlie?" She flashed him what she hoped was a winning smile.

"Well, I' really not supposed to…" he said, drawing out the first word, as Emma gave him a set of puppy dog eyes, "But I guess if it's _that_ important."

"Thank you so much. I usually wouldn't go to the trouble, but he was so upset he was nearly crying."

"Well we can't have that, can we? Did he say what room he left it in?"

"Uuuuummmmm no, but that's ok, if you have work to do, I can just go find it by myself." Emma said quickly. If this guy stuck around, she wouldn't be able to pull out any of her ghost tracking gear.

"All the doors are locked. You couldn't get into any of them."

Emma groaned inwardly. _Instead of going and drinking, I get stuck trekking across campus, in the dark, for no good reason. I hope those college bimbos are worth it Dean, especially if I end up getting murdered by creepy janitor guy._ She felt a twinge of guilt at that thought. It wasn't his fault he got stuck with possibly the creepiest job on the world (excluding hunting of course). Maybe she could still make it worth the trip though.

"Oh, really? Crap. Well, I'm pretty sure he had a class with that one guy, you know, the teacher who just came out with that new book?"

"Didn't your brother tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

"He took a swan dive out of that window right there," Charlie said, pointing straight up. "He landed right where we're standing. I think that the class is still being taught there though, so we can still go check."

Emma widened her eyes as he grabbed a huge bundle of keys and opened the door. "Oh no! Does anyone know why he did it?"

As Charlie finished explaining about the professor, his life, and his lecherous ways, they reached the classroom. He opened the door and flipped on the lights. As the brightness filled the room, Emma was a surprised to see that the janitor wasn't creepy looking at all. He had a handsome face and gorgeous hazel eyes. The surprise on her face must have been obvious, because he gave her a charming smile.

"I know," he said, " the campus at night combined with the whole night shift cleaning guy makes me a bit scary in the dark. Sometimes I freak myself out when I catch a glimpse of myself in a window."

Emma blushed, very brightly and deeply. "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it. Now let's see if we can find that flash drive ."

After a quick look around the classroom, Emma kneeled down behind a desk and quietly pulled out her keychain that luckily had a small flash drive connected to it. Disconnecting it, she shoved her keys back into her bag, and held up the small device in her other hand.

"I got it! Crisis averted!" She got up, dusting her knees off, and walked over to Charlie. "Thank you so much for this, my brother can't afford to miss another paper."

"It was no problem sister." He looked down at his shoes suddenly. "But 'ya know… you could make it up to me…"

Emma's fist tightened. Had she really thought this guy seemed ok? Apparently she wasn't very good at hiding her emotions today, because he quickly backtracked.

"Oh god, no! I didn't mean it like that. I just meant-you know- drinks or something."

Emma considered. It would be nice to talk to a guy who wasn't related to her or who she was questioning about a case.

"All right, drinks would be nice. What's your number?" she asked, pulling out her phone. After they exchanged numbers, Emma stealthily set down her bag right in front of the door so it would stop it from closing entirely as they walked out. When they almost got to the entrance, Emma slapped herself on the head.

"You know what, I can't believe it, but I forgot my bag! I guess it's a family thing, can you wait right here for just a second?" Before he could say anything, Emma sprinted back to the room. She yanked out the EMF detector she had brought along, ran around the room, paying special attention to the windows, and when nothing came up, threw it back into her bag just as Charlie came up.

"Got it! We can finally go now!"

_Disclaimer-I own nothing!_


	3. Aliens Exist

_All right, I can see that people are reading this, so can you please leave a couple of reviews? Reading them makes the time I spend working on this story feel worth it! Sorry this one's so short, if I get some reviews, maybe you can get a second update by tonight!_

Emma was walking back across campus in the dark. She felt happier than she had for a long time.

She almost couldn't remember the last date she had been on. All she could remember was the guy turned out to be a pervert who lived with his mother, and that when he had "accidentally" tried to grab her ass when it was time to go, she had "accidentally" broke his wrist. This guy seemed nice. Nice and normal, two things that she didn't come across very often ever since she started hunting again.

She was so happy, in fact, she almost didn't hear the scream coming from the building she had recently left. Running back, she saw a huge, bright light coming from above the building, and it seemed to be moving. When she arrived, she saw a big frat guy being chased, which she was used to seeing, but what was different was it seemed like the light _itself _was chasing him.

The boy reached her. "Please," he said desperately. "you gotta help me!"

She grabbed his arm and started running as fast as she could towards Crawford Hall. She thought that the light was too big to fit inside, and she didn't know how to fight this. She didn't even know what "this" was. It almost seemed like a UFO, but of course aliens weren't real.

As if to prove this thought wrong, the light was suddenly directly overhead the pair. When she started to feel the light lift the boy up, she tightened her grip. Soon she started to feel herself being lifted as well. She was suddenly dangling about ten feet off the ground when the light started to shake. It was almost like it was trying to get her off. She felt her fingers slipping.

"Don't let them get me!" The boy shouted desperately, just as Emma's grip suddenly gave out. As she was falling, she saw the boy disappear and the light disappear, and darkness enveloped the grounds once more. And when she hit her head on the ground, the lights went off for her too.


	4. Hum Along

"_Aliens?"_ Bobby asked in a disbelieving tone.

"Yep," Emma replied. He repeated it once more, louder this time.

"Even if they were real, they're not coming to earth and swiping people. Never in my whole life have I ever found evidence of an honest to god abduction. It's all just-"

"Cranks and pranks. Yeah Bobby, I know. You've told me before. I'm just explaining to you what it looked like. And it looked a hell of a lot like an abduction." Emma finished, slightly annoyed.

"Yeah. But that's not the weird part." Sam said.

Bobby snorted. "It's not?"

"No. When Dean and I went to talk to the guy, he said that they not only probed him, but made him _slow dance _with one of him."

"Well then, this frat boys' just nuts then."

"Except for the part where _I saw something take him_ Bobby! And not only that, but on the lawn in front of the building there was a giant, saucer shape burnt into the grass, exactly where they took him. Not to mention this giant goose egg on my forehead from where I was dropped twelve feet."

Dean started to fill Bobby in about their talk with the frat boys' pledge. He didn't get very far before Sam interrupted, and they started arguing again.

Bobby quickly interjected. "Wait a second. Where was Emma when you guys were off investigating?"

"Yeah Emma. Why don't you tell Bobby where you were, hmm?" Dean said rudely.

"I was, uhh, you know, following up the questioning, with Charlie."

"Charlie?"

"Yeah. The janitor. He was around there that night, I figured he might have seen something!" Emma said defensively.

"Sure. And his _dreamy eyes _had nothing to do with it." Dean said smirking.

"Shut up. I had no idea what I was saying, after you guys found me. I _had_ just hit my head after a ten foot fall. See how concise you are after that."

"Whatever," Dean snorted.

"Anyways, he didn't see anything, and it was a waste of time, so we can just stop talking about it, ok?"

Emma thought about her date that night. Maybe she hadn't found out anything new, but that didn't mean that she had really thought it was a waste of time.

Emma walked into the bar. The place was already decorated for Christmas. There was mistletoe everywhere, streamers, and tons of tinsel hanging from the jukebox, the ceiling, the tables, and even the bar. As Charlie had to spend his days and nights constantly cleaning up after college kids, they had agreed on a bar across town and not the one Dean and Sam were at questioning the abductee. Emma was glad for an excuse to miss that one, as she felt a little ashamed that she hadn't been able to save him. Searching the bar, she finally found Charlie in a booth in the corner. Quickly adjusting her hat she was wearing to cover her giant purple second head she had gotten the night before, she walked over and gave him a quick grin.

Emma thought he had been good looking last night, but tonight he was downright dashing. He wore a dark green jacket over a red button down shirt, and his hair was doing an adorable flip thing. It was the kind of hair she wanted to run her fingers through while-

"Nice hat." he said, startling her out of her thoughts.

"Oh, um, thanks." Emma replied, happy that it was dark and he hopefully couldn't see how flustered she must look. '_Where did _that _come from?' _she wondered. She was starting to think like Dean, for god's sake. She cleared her throat. Work came first on a case. No matter how cute the guy was. She needed information about the campus.

"Thanks again for helping me out last night."

"It was no problem. Did you hear about what happened last night?"

"What, you mean besides you being a hero?"

He flashed a grin and laughed. "Yeah, besides that."

"No, I didn't. What happened?"

Charlie leaned in close over the booth. Emma did the same.

"Two words. Alien. Abduction."

Emma faked a laugh. "Yeah, right. You don't actually believe in that stuff, do you?"

"More like… I want to believe."

"Do you often quote the X-files on first dates."

"Only occasionally. And most people don't realize it when I do."

Emma gave a guilty looking grin. "Oops. Kinda outed myself as a geek right there, huh? I swear, I only watched it when my brother had it on."

He smirked. "Sure, whatever you say."

"So… a haunting and an abduction all in one week. Are things usually this busy around campus?"

"Never! That's why it's all so weird. _Nothing_ ever happens around here. Although, from the sounds of it, both dudes had it coming."

Emma frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Well, like I told you last night, the professor was a lecherous, cheating jerk. And the kid who's claiming he was abducted was apparently getting his kicks by torturing some of his fraternity's pledges."

"Well, I don't think that that means he deserved to be, like, probed, or whatever it is that happens onboard one of those things."

"That's not the best part, though. He's saying that they made him _slow dance _with them." Charlie chuckled.

Emma couldn't help but laugh for real this time. "Wow. That is kinda hilarious. I can't believe we're talking about this like it actually happened. Obviously the kid was either drunk or on something."

He smiled mysteriously. "Obviously." He gave a small frown. "Hold on, you got something in your hair." He reached over the table before Emma could move and grabbed a bit of tinsel that had fallen from somewhere and landed in her hair. In the process of doing that, his hand accidentally knocked her hat up, revealing the giant bump.

"Oh, wow! What happened, you run into a counter or something?"

"Ha ha. A short joke, never heard one of _those_ before. No, I was in a rush this morning and somehow managed to knock my head against my own car door. Nearly knocked myself out. You should see the door though." she said in a joking tone.

"Huh. Well the bluish part of it matches your eyes nicely. And I actually do mean that in the nicest possible way," he said, smiling.

Emma couldn't help but smile back. If anyone else had said something like that, she would have called them a dick, but the way he said it seemed like he honestly just was joking with her, and wanted to make her laugh.

Screw work. Work could wait until tomorrow. She was going to enjoy this time.

"Thanks. So, how long have you been working at the college?"

_Hey guys! I told you there might be another update today! What is that, like 3 in twenty four hours? I'm awesome. So, yeah, there's a reason why the trickster is kind of out of character now, but I'm not telling why quite yet! So, anyway, please try to leave a review! It only takes a second, and I am getting depressed that not many people are leaving reviews. And when I get depressed, my writing slows down. Significantly. Take that as you will. _

_P.S. One of the reviewers asked how old Emma was when their mother died. She was 3, Dean was 5 and Sam was six months._


	5. Kiss With A Fist

_Sorry that this isn't that great of a chapter. I'm sick though, so I do have an excuse. If it's really bad though I will update it as soon as I get better. You guys are lucky I'm so dedicated. _

"Yeah, I still can't believe that you blew off work to go on a date. With a janitor no less." Dean said, rolling his eyes.

"First off, your not one to judge Mr. G.E.D. Second, it wasn't a date. And third, what you were doing that first night with Starla was _way _worse than anything I have ever done on a case." Emma said, holding up her fingers as she counted off.

"Her name was not Starla. And she was a classy chick."

"Hey, guys? Can we get back to what happened next?" Bobby asked, cutting off Emma's retort to what Dean qualified about 'classy chicks'.

"Well, after Emma finally got back from her night off with mop boy, we decided to go investigate another killing we had heard about. A scientist had been mutilated pretty badly. He fit the profile of 'dick' like the other two victims. Not that Emma would know, because she was too busy texting that jerk. When we pulled the body out, though, she started to pay attention. 'Oh. Oh my god. Is- is that a piece of liver?' She asked, right before she ran over to the trash can."

"Shut up! I do not act like that around blood! And I texted him once, to say thanks for the drinks."

Sam interjected. "Actually, you kind of do act like that." Emma gave him a death glare. "But only around things that have been mauled," he finished quickly.

Dean went on to explain about the belly scale they had found on the body, and how Sam and Dean had explored the sewers the next day.

Sam had returned first. When he got back to the hotel, Emma was doing research on her own laptop, as Sam's was still missing. She was sitting by the large open window, her phone carefully within grabbing distance.

"Do you mind if I borrow your phone? I want to see how long Bobby has until he gets here, and I left mine back in the car."

Emma glanced up. "Umm can't you just use the hotel's? I'm waiting for a call."

Sam had suspected as much. He didn't really want his sister to go out with this janitor guy. Something about him just seemed a little off. Suddenly the phone went off.

Sam grabbed it before Emma could even reach for it. She looked up, annoyed. "Sam! Give that back! Charlie said he'd call if something else happened."

Sam held the phone out of her reach. "I don't like how this guy has been making you act. You're constantly distracted. You need to focus on the case." He was a little annoyed now.

Emma jumped for her phone. Sam just lifted it higher. There was no way she was getting the phone back.

"Sam, I'm not a little girl. I can judge for myself who I hang around with, all right?"

Sam didn't answer. After a few minutes of jumping for her phone, Emma gave a growl of frustration and turned to walk away. He slowly lowered the phone. Unfortunately, Emma expected that, and quickly jumped on the bed and onto her younger brothers back.

"Give it back!" She yelled, trying to hold on to his back while simultaneously attempting to drag down the hand with her phone in it.

"Get off of me! This is for your own good." Sam grunted. She might not have been as strong, but she sometimes could make up for it with sheer determination.

Just then Dean walked in, looking pissed. Ignoring Emma and the fact that she was hanging on his back, he hit their brother in the back of the head and started yelling about his precious car tires and how he was keeping the wad of cash that was in his hand for 'emotional trauma'. Emma couldn't care less, as she was still struggling to reach the phone far above her head. Soon all three were involved in a full contact-keep-away match.

"Ok, I've heard enough." Interrupted Bobby.

"Anyway, you showed up about an hour after that," Dean said, looking at his hands.

"I'm surprised at you three. I really am. Sam, first off, Dean did not take your computer." Bobby shushed Sam before he could interrupt. "And Dean, Sam did not touch your car. And if you two bothered to pull your head out of your asses, it would be pretty clear what you were dealing with."

Silence filled the room. "I got nothing'." Dean finally said.

"Nope."

"Me either."

"You got a Trickster on your hands."

Dean snapped his fingers. "That's what I thought."

"What? No you didn't!" His younger siblings shouted.

Bobby explained what a Trickster was, how it was playing the siblings against each other, and that they looked (mostly) human.

"And what human do we know who's been at ground zero this whole time?" Dean asked.

Emma and Sam thought about it. As soon as she realized who he meant, she began to glare at him.

"Really? Because we went on one date, you're going to go into super over protective big brother mode? Charlie is a nice, _normal_ guy. Not some ancient monster."

"It does all make sense, Emma." Sam said.

"I think I would have noticed something. Besides, we were alone together for a while that first night and he didn't try to pull any tricks. And he had the chance to abduct me along with the frat boy!"

Bobby looked at Emma with sympathy. "Darlin', you _were_ being tricked. He was trying to pit you against your brothers so you wouldn't notice anything. And what better way to distract you than being the reason _why_ you would fight with them?"

Emma looked at her brothers. "No. He was such a nice guy." Desperation was starting to appear in her voice. She _needed _this. A normal guy, just for once, something to grab on to in this insane thing that was her life. Was that so much to ask?

Surprisingly, Sam was the one who tried to help. "Em, we won't jump to any conclusions. But we do need to check this out, just in case, all right?" Emma couldn't say anything.


	6. Chapter 6

_Author's note- A person has scolded me for holding this chapter hostage for reviews, and I'm really sorry, because I was doing that. It won't happen again, I promise! Cookies for everyone!_

_P.S Another person was worried about the bump on Emma's forehead. It's not serious at all, it just looks pretty bad She got it from the fall she took when the frat boy was abducted, and it was mostly just supposed to add a little humor for the opening scene._

Sorry I'm draggin' a little ass today boys. I had a loooong night last night," said the janitor, a little smirk on his face. "Lots of sex, if you get my drift." Sam, usually the most level headed of the siblings, had to dig his nails into his hands in order to not hit the creep. _This is the guy who Emma went out with?_ Even if he turned out to not be the Trickster, he was still going to eventually deck the guy for messing with his sister. But for now, they needed the guy.

"Yeah, it's hard not to." He said. "Crap, I think I forgot something in the car. You guys go ahead, I'll catch up." He started to the door as Dean and the janitor headed up the door. When they turned the corner, Sam opened the door and let his sister in. He wondered if she had heard the 'lots of sex' comment.

She had. "That _creep! _Oh my god! I can't believe that I agreed to go out with him. I hope he turns out to be the Trickster now. Let's go." She said, with a large scowl on her face. Sam almost felt sorry for the guy now. He knew what it meant to be on his sister's bad side.

They reached the staff locker room. "Ok, so what are we looking for?" Emma asked, trying to keep a cool head as she took several deep breathes.

"Bobby said that this thing has a metabolism like an insect, a real sweet tooth. Have you ever seen him eat?"

Emma shook her head. "We just had drinks and some of those peanuts they had on the table."

Sam managed to jimmie open the locker. They both peered in. Besides an extra jacket, the locker appeared to be empty. Sam looked at the top shelf. He pulled down a few editions of 'Weekly World News'.

Emma started to read off headlines. " 'I Was an Alien Love Slave', 'Giant Alligator Sewer Monsters' 'Cannibal Man Chainsaws Family,' and, wait what's a 'bat-boy?'"

"I don't know, ask Dean, he reads this stuff."

Emma skimmed the article. "Well whatever he is, apparently he can now paralyze a person with a single bite. Ouch."

The siblings walked back up the stairs. They met with Dean on the lawn. "Just because he reads the 'Weekly World News' doesn't mean he's our guy. I mean Dean reads it too."

Emma stood firm. "I'm telling you, it's him."

"No Emma, you _want _it to be him. I get it, I really do. I'm just saying we need some hard proof, that's all." Sam said as they walked out towards the parking lot.

Dean asked if they had found anything to suggest whether the janitor had a sweet tooth."

"We didn't find anything with sugar in it, no candy bars, not even 'Equal'."

"That's probably because you missed something."

"I don't miss things Dean."

"Oh right because you're Mr. Perfect."

"Are you still pissed at me because of what the Trickster did?"

Dean scoffed. "Oh come on, you've been a tight-ass long before that Trickster showed up."

Emma glared at her two brothers. "Hey, could you guys stop arguing about this and focus on the case?"

"_Us,_ focus? What about you? You were the one who was closest to this guy and didn't even realize it!" said Dean angrily.

"Well I'm sorry Dean. I'm sorry that for once I tried to have a normal relationship! God, I am so _sick _of you guys trying to control me and the fact that no guy seems to ever be good enough! I don't need you guys to protect me!"

Dean was close to shouting. "Oh really? Because you seem to have your love life totally under control. What's after this monster? Demons?"

Before Emma could answer, Sam butted in. "Will you two shut up? I'm going to go back to this guy's apartment, and see if I can find any actual evidence before you guys go barging in and staking a man. Just wait until I get back, ok?" Neither Emma or Dean responded. "_Ok?_"

"Ok!" They finally said. Sam walked off towards their car. Emma and Dean glared at each other for a minute, until Emma stormed off towards the building. None of them saw the topic of their conversation watching them from the top floor.

_Disclaimer- I own nothing!_


	7. Chapter 7

_Author's note- Sorry this took so long! I had _no_ idea how to go about this chapter, but I think it came out pretty good. _

Emma and Dean waited outside of the building as the sun went down. Emma pulled out her phone, impatient for Sam to get back from Charlie's apartment. He had been gone for more than an hour. "Forget this." she mumbled to herself as she turned towards the building.

"Where are you going? We agreed to wait until Sam comes back before we do anything."

"I gotta go to the little girls room." Emma lied smoothly.

"Sure you do. You ain't going in there alone." Dean shot back.

"Fine then. Come with me. I'm sick of waiting here."

Dean followed his sister into the building. "That's not exactly what I meant."

The pair wandered around the building. Dean noticed that his sister seemed unusually sullen looking. Dean wasn't sure what to do. He wasn't very good at comforting people, as he usually had Sam to do that for him, especially when it came to their sister.

"So, uh, do you wanna talk about it?"

"About what?"

"You know, this guy problem-thing."

"Nope." Emma replied, popping the 'p' slightly. Dean tried not to look too relieved.

"I think I hear something coming from over there." Emma said, pointing towards two doors. She and her brother slowly raised their guns, and giving a slight nod, Dean slowly opened one of the doors. "Cover me." He said.

Dean walked into a giant auditorium as Emma waited behind the door. She could hear that some Barry White was coming from the speakers. Peering in, Emma saw her brother talking to someone. Someone in a janitor uniform. Staring at the scene before her, Emma could no longer lie to herself. She had been played just as much as her brothers had. Charlie- the Trickster, Emma corrected herself- had been distracting her. There had been no real connection between the two. It had all been a ploy, and she had fallen for it hook, line and sinker.

On the stage was a giant bed. On said bed were two scantily clad women. Emma wondered if those were the two who the Trickster had had sex with last night. She was almost jealous before she remembered that she hated him. She heard a bit of the conversation going on inside. "Come on," she heard the jerk inside say. "Those people got what was coming to them. Hoisted on their own petards. But you Winchesters. I like you. I do. Especially that short one. She seems…interesting." Emma glared at the back of his head. She knew he was lying, trying to get out of the serious ass-kicking that was coming to him, but a small part of her wondered if he meant it.

Sam and Bobby arrived at the doors. Emma motioned for Sam to go to the other door that led to the far side of the room, while Bobby stayed with her. They could hear the conversation wrapping up inside. As the Trickster scolded Dean on coming alone, the trio of hunters stepped into view.

The Trickster looked at the back of the room. For a second, Emma thought that he was looking right into her eyes, before he turned back to Dean. "So that fight outside, that was all a trick?" Dean simply shrugged. "Not bad." said the Trickster. "But you wanna see a real trick?" He snapped his fingers.

A chainsaw sprang into life behind Sam. The hunters ran towards the stage. Emma could hear the Trickster laughing. Before she could turn to face him, she felt something land on her back, almost knocking her over. She heard a high pitched squealing in her ears. Suddenly, whatever had jumped onto her jumped back off. She quickly spun around to face her attacker.

So _this_ was a bat-boy. It was a small, child sized creature. Its face was mostly human, but it had a huge oversized mouth and pointed ears. On its back were two small, leathery wings. Emma saw her brother start towards her and the monster.

"I got it, go help Bobby!" shouted Emma. Sam reluctantly turned around to help the older man; from the corner of her eye, Emma saw Dean being thrown onto the stage by the blonde bimbo.

The bat boy had disappeared. Emma spun desperately, trying to find it again. '_Where could it have gone?_' she wondered, puzzled. Suddenly it hit her, and she could have slapped herself. She looked up. There it was hanging from the curtains above the stage. When it saw her looking up, the creature gave a hiss and leaped back down. Emma reached for her knife as the thing reached her. She managed to cut its shoulder before it bit her wrist. Although the bite wasn't deep, she could feel a burn rushing up her arm. Suddenly she remembered the article they had seen earlier. '_Craaaap. Crapcrapcrapcrap!' _Instant paralyzation. She fell down as her knees gave out.

Soon the bat boy was above her, breathing horrible, hot breath into her face. Emma wished she could at least turn her head away from it, but her body would no longer listen to that small command. She braced herself internally as the thing gave a smile and started towards her neck, blocking her vision with its giant head.

Suddenly Emma could no longer feel its breath. It sat up, and as Emma watched, it disappeared in a blue shimmer. In its place was the Trickster, looking concerned.

As soon as it was gone, Emma could feel the burning sensation running through her body disappear. The Trickster's face turned from a look of concern to a smirk so fast, she had to wonder if she had only _wanted _to see the concern.

"Man," he said. "You _really_ need to work on _not _getting your ass kicked in fights." Emma suddenly felt a warm splatter of blood on her face. The Trickster looked down, his eyes wide. The point of the stake Dean had brought was sticking out of his chest. Emma saw the chainsaw man and the bimbos disappear in the same blue shimmer that had gotten rid of the bat boy a moment before.

"You're one to talk." Dean said, as the Trickster fell to the ground. The candy bar he had been eating fell next to Emma's foot. She quickly got up and stood by her older brother. "Come on, we need to get out of here." Bobby and Sam were already heading towards the door. Emma looked down at the Trickster. She couldn't help the wave of sadness that washed over her. She had really liked him, or at least what he had pretended to be. She leaned down to close his eyes.

"Come _on_" Dean said, yanking her back up. Together they ran out the doors to the entrance of the building. As they reached the car, the siblings all looked at each other.

"Dean, Emma…" Sammy started, seemingly lost for words.

"I know." Emma said. "Me too."

"Yeah." Dean agreed.

"You guys are breaking my heart, can we get out of here, _now?_" Bobby asked sarcastically.

Emma climbed into the backseat after Bobby, As they drove out of sight, Emma watched the building get smaller and smaller, even as she felt the sadness over Charlie grow bigger and bigger.

_Disclaimer- I own nothing!_


	8. Chapter 8

_VERY IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE! I am changing the title of the story! The new title will be Love Me Dead__after the Ludo song. I will also be changing the chapter names eventually. You have been warned._

The Winchesters and Bobby got out of the car. The trip back to the hotel had been completely silent. Occasionally one of her brothers had looked back from the front seat and opened their mouths as if they wanted to say something, but they never actually did. Emma was glad they didn't. She didn't want to talk about what had happened. All she wanted to do was to go back to her room and take a long, hot shower, and then cry herself to sleep.

When she had finally gotten her brothers to return to their own room, Emma slowly turned and leaned against the door. She was both physically and emotionally exhausted. She looked down at her shirt. There were blood stains splattered all over it, and she was almost sure there was a bit on her face. As she trudged towards the bathroom, she noticed something shimmer in her pile of dirty laundry that she kept forgetting to do. For reasons she wasn't sure of, she reached down to see what it was.

It was the strand of tinsel Charlie had pulled from her hair on their date. Emma's heart clenched painfully in her chest as she let it fall to the ground. Charlie. Trickster. Whatever you called him, he was the first guy who Emma had felt a connection with for a long time. Emma rubbed at her cheeks angrily as she felt a few tears escape.

Emma turned on the radio. It didn't matter to her what was on, as long as it was loud enough that she could drown out her own thoughts. She wanted to be out of her head for a while.

She turned the shower on to let the water warm up. After she had pulled off her jeans and shirt, she looked at her face. Just as she had thought, there was a bit of blood smeared on her left cheek. Not much, only a few drops. She wiped at it with a tissue as she checked her phone to see the time. 10:27 P.M. She was surprised. It felt a lot later than that. She tossed the phone over to the phone. It hit the middle, but didn't stop sliding. Emma winced as she heard the phone hit the bed stand with a loud 'thunk' and fell to the ground. Sighing, she crawled over the bed and started to fish for the phone.

The first thing she found wasn't her phone though. Her fingers brushed a small metal object with rough edges. Curious, she pulled it out. She stared at the object in her hand. She almost couldn't believe what she was looking at.

It was a key. She had no idea what it went to, whose it was, or where it came from. It wasn't an elaborate key, it was more the size of a key that would go to a bike lock, or a gym locker. After staring at it for a few moments, she closed her fingers over it, and started to clench her hand into a tight fist. She threw the key so hard across the room it left a mark where it hit the wall. How was _everything_ reminding her of Charlie?

She angrily grabbed her phone and dropped it harder than she intended to on the bed stand. Turning up the radio, she stormed into her bathroom to take her shower. She stayed in there much longer than she needed to, scrubbing her skin until it was raw, as if she could simply wash the memory of Charlie off of her. When she finally stepped out of the shower, steam had completely filled the bathroom and was even starting to fill the bedroom up. She grabbed her favorite robe, a silky purple thing that hit just above her knees and a pair of white slippers. Wrapping her hair up with a towel turban, she walked into the bedroom. Suddenly, the song on the radio stopped in the middle of a top 40's song. Emma stared at the radio in confusion.

"_I wanna do bad things with-with you-with you…" _Emma jumped about a foot as 'Bad Things' by Jace Everett suddenly blasted from the previously silent radio. She rushed over to turn it down. When it was at a level that wouldn't shatter eardrums, she heard a voice coming from behind her.

"_Nice _robe!"

_Disclaimer-I own nothing!_


	9. Chapter 9

Without turning around, Emma lunged to open the desk the radio was sitting on. The drawer was completely empty. "Looking for this?"

Emma slowly turned around. There he was. The Trickster. The man who Emma had seen stabbed through the heart less than two hours ago. And he was sitting calmly on her bed, holding the gun Emma had hidden in the desk earlier. Barely stopping to blink, she ran towards her bag. "Sorry sweet cheeks, but I cleaned you out." Going through her things, she knew it was true. All of her weapons were gone.

She turned to face the intruder once more. "How are you still alive? We staked you, we dipped the stake in that poor man's blood, the one you fed to the alligator. Bobby said-"

The Trickster interrupted her. "And it _would_ have worked. Had it been me you stabbed. Check your shirt." He threw the shirt she had been wearing earlier to her feet.

Carefully, never taking her eyes off the creature in front of her, Emma leaned down to pick up her shirt. It was clean. The blood that had been on it was completely gone. "How did-"

"It get clean?" The Trickster interrupted again. "Simple. I can make things appear out of thin air, remember? Including copies of myself. As soon as I made the body disappear, every part of it was gone. Including it's blood. Nifty, huh?" He smirked, clearly proud of himself. Emma wasn't paying attention. She was too busy pulling the clock out of the wall. She threw it as hard as she could at his head, keeping ahold of the plug. It hit him straight between his eyes.

"Hey! Ow!" He looked shocked. He hadn't been prepared for that, obviously. '_Well, to be fair, would anyone be prepared to be hit with a clock radio?'_ Emma thought, pulling the clock back towards her. She "Is that the kind of thanks I get for saving your life?"

It was Emma's turn to be shocked. "You're joking right? How exactly did you save my life?"

The Trickster raised his eyebrows. "I could have let the bat boy finish the job. But I vaporized him, remember?"

"That so does not count as saving my life, seeing as _you _were the one who set him loose on him and my brothers. In addition to two freakishly strong hoe-bags, and a pissed off giant with a chainsaw."

He shrugged. "I was just trying to defend myself. Like I told your brother, I didn't want to hurt any of you. I liked you guys. Still do."

"Sure you do. You do know that my brothers and I _will_ find a way to kill you, right?"

"Maybe. But not tonight." When Emma tried to throw the clock again, the Trickster easily grabbed it. He yanked it out of her hands, forcing her forward a few steps. Which unfortunately caused her robe to slip more than a little bit. Emma righted herself and the robe quickly, blushing furiously. The Trickster smirked again. Emma clenched her fists. She hated herself, but she really _didn't _want to kill him. At all. Even if he was an arrogant jerk who killed people. But he had to be stopped, no matter how she personally felt.

"That's what you think." She turned and sprinted to the door. When she reached it, she turned around to try to fend off the Trickster, who was obviously going to try to stop her from leaving.

He wasn't. He was still on the bed, except now he was actually _lying _down, his arms folded behind his head. Emma was confused. He didn't even look worried. _'Oh my god! Why's he-he- he's CLOSING HIS EYES!' _Emma glared at him. She needed to get her brothers in here. But when she opened the door, she stopped dead in her tracks.

"Are you ready to talk civilly now?" The Trickster asked dryly.

_Author's note- Sorry for the cliff hanger guys! But don't worry, a new chapter will be up tomorrow! _

_Disclaimer-I own nothing!_


	10. Chapter 10

_Author's note- Can I tell you guys something? I saw the new Pepsi Max commercial today, and I almost started crying. The wound is still really fresh after all this time. Anyways, a couple of people have commented on how they think that the chapters should be longer. I can do that if everyone wants, but it would mean less updates. Is everyone ok with that? Let me know._

"Where. The hell. Are we?" Emma asked in a whisper. There was supposed to be a walkway and a railing just outside her door. Behind that railing was supposed to be a parking lot, and after that, the other side of the motel.

Instead, there was a huge sand dune. Followed by sand, and then another sand dune, and another, and another. Emma slammed the door, waited a few seconds, and opened it again. The dunes were still there.

"Hmmm, I don't know exactly. Somewhere in the Sahara desert, I think. Maybe the Arabian. It really doesn't matter, does it? The point is, now you gotta stay here and listen to what I have to say."

Emma stared at him, too shocked to be angry. "How…how did you _do _this?"

The Trickster shrugged. "I _am_ the Trickster after all. It's a lot of mumbo jumbo, wormholes, wibbily wobboly, timey wimey…stuff. It's all very complicated."

Emma was still staring at him, mouth slightly open. "Well. Take me back. Please?"

"I will, don't worry. But first you have to listen to me."

Emma cautiously moved to the chair besides the bed. Looking uncertain, she sat down. She stared at the Trickster. "All right then. What do you want to talk about?"

"Your brothers."

"Sam and Dean?"

The Trickster nodded. "Yep. Turns out, their a hot topic right now in the demon world right now. All of those sons of a bitches are really excited about something coming up."

Emma tensed. "What do you mean? What's coming up?"

The Trickster shook his head. "It's not important what it is exactly. My point in bringing you here is to tell you that you need to convince tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum that they can't let it happen."

Emma was confused. "How can I get them to not let it happen if I don't even know what _it _is?"

"Your brothers are all about the self sacrifice for the sake of family. Your whole family was. You guys live on it, at least, the ones who aren't already dead because of it do. And nothing good ever comes from it. Just pain and blood. Especially for those two. That's why you need to convince them to stop."

Emma shook her head. "First off, how am I supposed to just bring that up in conversation? Second, this would be a whole lot easier if you would just tell me what's going to happen. Third, and most importantly, why do you even care? You kill people for kicks. My family hunts things like you. You should be happy at the thought of my family dying."

The Trickster sighed. "You really don't get it do you? This is something much bigger than you and you're brothers family issues. You guys are going to have the entire world in your hands some day. And if you can stop your brothers from messing things up, then maybe everything I've seen in the future won't come true. And then we can all be happy, me messing with arrogant dicks, and you and your brothers trying desperately to win your dead daddy's approval by keeping the family business alive. And believe it or not, I do like you and your brothers. I meant that. Believe me, 'interesting' is a huge compliment coming from someone who's been around as long as I have."

Emma was silent. "Have you ever even met Dean?" She finally asked, ignoring the last part. "Because if you know us as well as you claim to, you would know that to Dean, family is everything. Out dad pounded it into all of our heads since we were babies that family and hunting were the only two things that really mattered in the world. And Dean… Dean has always thought of himself as having one job in the world, and that was protecting Sam and I. The point is, my brothers and I would go to the end of the world for each other. And that's not going to change, especially just because some demi-god- wannabe says it should."

The Trickster sighed. "Well, I guess you're just as stubborn as your brothers. Just wait though. You'll come around."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that that's for me to know, and you to find out." The Trickster gave a smirk and snapped his fingers.

_Disclaimer-I own nothing!_


	11. Chapter 11

Emma woke up in her bed, squinting in the bright sunlight. Someone was knocking on her bedroom door. When had she gone to bed? She couldn't remember even getting _into_ bed. Suddenly it hit her.

She jumped straight out of bed, hitting her ankle on the nightstand and nearly falling over her pile of laundry on the ground in her rush to get to the door. Taking a deep breath, Emma pulled open her door. She nearly wept with relief.

The sand dunes were gone. The parking lot, the walkway, and the railings were all in the right places. There was also a giant standing in her doorway.

"Emma?" Her brother asked. "Are you ok? What happened?" Emma wondered what the expression on her face must look like. She shook her head. She needed a few moments to get her thoughts straight.

"Get Dean and Bobby and meet me in the diner across the street. I'll meet you guys there."

* * *

Emma looked around the hotel room one last time to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything. Now that she was showered and ready to go, it seemed easier to believe that last night had been her imagination, except for two things. The first was that both the tinsel and the key had disappeared. Emma wondered what had happened to them. She thought that most likely the Trickster had placed them there to mess with her head a little, make her a bit more vulnerable.

The second was a bit more obvious. After Emma had closed the door, she remembered what she had been wearing when the Trickster had visited, or, rather what she _hadn't_ been wearing. She froze. She had just been talking to her brother… and her robe was over on the chair she had been sitting on last night. Slowly, she looked down, afraid of what she wouldn't see. Thankfully, she had in fact been wearing something.

Unfortunately, it had been a rather small, pink, lacey nightie. One she most certainly had never bought for herself. A present from the Trickster? Emma wondered if he actually thought this would be funny. She would _never_ wear something like this to bed. She was more of a shorts and tank top girl. _'Oh well, at least it covers everything.'_

So maybe it hadn't been a dream. Emma wondered why the Trickster had actually tried to warn her. Obviously it was some sort of trick, but why? What would it achieve? Maybe he was trying to turn the siblings against each other again.

At the diner, Dean, Sam and Bobby had already ordered their breakfast. Dean had gotten a huge stack of pancakes with scrambled eggs and bacon, Sam had gotten a fruit salad, and Bobby had gotten a bagel and eggs. Emma quickly ordered a smoothie and an English muffin, and tried to decide how to tell the boys what had happened.

"All right, then," Dean started, his mouth full of food, "what happened?"

Emma took a deep breath and told all the boys about how the Trickster was still alive and his warnings about the Winchester's futures. While she was telling the story, the boys faces went from anger to surprise to worry. When Emma had finished, the boys and Bobby sat still for a moment looking thoughtful.

Suddenly their faces changed, as if an electrical shock went through them all.

Dean took a bite. "All right, then, what happened?" he asked again, his mouth full of food.

It was Emma's turn to look surprise. "Uhhhh…. I just told you. The Trickster's alive? He gave a warning about the sacrifices we're going to make? Any of this sound familiar?"

"The Trickster's alive? How?" asked Sam.

"I just told you! Emma said loudly. "God, I mean, I know you guys don't listen very well, but come on!"

The men stared at her for a second. Suddenly, they gave another small jump, as if a jolt went through their bodies once more. Dean took a bite.

"All right then-" Dean started.

"Forget it. Nothing happened. Eat your breakfast." Emma snapped. She knew what was happening now. "I'm going to the bathroom." She got up quickly and stormed off towards the restroom.

The guys looked at each other.

"What's wrong with her?" Sam asked.

"Girl-time?" Dean suggested, his mouth somehow even more full of food.

Bobby just rolled his eyes.

Emma stormed into the bathroom, locking the door behind her. "All right. Where are you?" She asked aloud. She waited for a few minutes. She was almost ready to give up when suddenly she heard a voice behind her.

"You're not very patient, are you?"

She turned around. "Why are you making them forget everything I tell them?"

"Who, those guys out there? I'm not making them forget _everything_. Just anything about me and last night."

"But you told me to warn them-"

"Yeah, I did. Unfortunately for you though, I don't want them to know I'm still alive. I really don't feel like dealing with them right now."

"Then how am I supposed to warn them?"

The Trickster shrugged. "Not my problem. I can't figure everything out."

Emma scowled at him.

He threw his hands up. "Come on, why are you so upset? I told you everything you need to know! I did all the work, now you just have to do this one little thing by yourself. It's not that hard."

Emma sighed. "I just don't want them to think that _I _feel like that. That I wouldn't do everything and anything for them."

The Trickster rolled his eyes. "I swear it's like talking to a brick wall. One of these days, you're going to have to learn that you _can't _feel like that. I understand family loyalty and love, really I do, but trust me, it's not going to end well for any of you."

Emma didn't say anything.

"You don't believe me, do you?" Emma shook her head.

He sighed. "Well, one day you will. I just hope it's not too late by then." He disappeared with a snap of his fingers.

* * *

Emma and her brothers said good-bye to Bobby. Within a day, they found another case, a woman and a farmer haunting a highway. The woman was being tormented by the farmer for accidentally killing him in the same crash that she died in. The poor woman didn't even know that she was dead.

After that, the siblings went to San Francisco to investigate a possible werewolf case. Although Dean had initially been very excited at the idea, the case soon turned tragic as it turned out that Madison, a woman Sam had grown to love, was a werewolf as well. When she found out, Madison had begged Sam to kill her, not wanting to be a monster. Sam had been very reluctant until Dean offered to do it for him. Emma had been heartbroken for her baby brother.

Dean had decided to take Sammy and Emma on a break to Los Angele after Madison and Charlie before they started hunting again. While Emma was happy that her brother was so thoughtful, she also felt guilty. Sam might deserve a break, but she didn't. Charlie, after all, hadn't died. The break however,, quickly turned into a case as there was a ghost haunting one of the movie sets.

After L.A, the Winchesters went to Little Rock, Arkansas. Since they were dealing with a case in a prison, they had decided that the boys would go alone. Emma was left with the Impala. To herself. For several days. She was going to have _fun._

_Author's note- Is this long enough? I tried! Warning though, the next chapter several chapters may or may not be short. I know what I want to do with this story, so the next couple parts are just me trying to get there._

_Disclaimer-I own nothing!_


	12. Chapter 12

Emma was most certainly _not _having fun. The first two days she had been on her own were great. She bought an ipod hookup so she could listen to her music for once (something that hadn't happened since Sam and Dean had dragged her back into the hunting world), went to bars, and did a _lot _of shopping. She got to just be normal, and best of all, do girlie things. She loved her brothers, but between all of their testosterone and the Winchester's family business, she wasn't always able to just be a girl. She had even gotten her nails done!

Yes, her break had started great. And then, he came along.

Emma was sitting at the bar with an old friend. Since the boys had to go to Little Rock, Emma had decided to visit the nearby city of Jacksonville. She had last been there when she was 15, and her father and Dean were on a hunt. Sam had been sick, so they had decided to leave the two younger Winchesters behind. John had dropped her and Sam off at a motel, told her they would be back in a few weeks, and had then taken off again. On the first day at their new school, Emma had met another new student named Becky. The two had become fast friends despite how reserved Emma usually was. What was funny was how obsessed Becky was with the supernatural. Emma had to always hide a grin whenever Becky mentioned how much she would love to see a ghost.

Although Becky _was _a bit more…exuberant… than Emma remembered, it was fun to catch up with someone who didn't want to talk about stabbing techniques, or about the pros and cons of a colt 1911 versus a Browning 9x19mm Hi-power.

"It's sooo good to see you again Emma! It's been like, what, a hundred years since we last saw each other?" Becky exclaimed.

Emma smiled. "Close. About ten." She looked at her watch. "Crap! It's almost 12! We've been talking for more than three hours." She grinned at her old friend. "I'm glad I caught you before you moved to Delaware. Guess you better go home and finish packing, huh?"

"Ohmygod, yeah! I can't believe I'm _finally _getting out of this town! Look, I even got a new book for the flight tomorrow!" She pulled out a paperback novel that had two long haired, bare-chested men on the cover. Across the cover in bold letters was the word 'Supernatural'. Emma had to resist rolling her eyes. It was the exact kind of book Becky had always tried to get Emma to read when they had last seen each other. Emma had never been interested. When you have to _live _in the supernatural world, it sort of sucks the fun out of reading about it. Books were supposed to be about escapism, anyway, and if Emma wanted to escape into 'another world' it would be into a normal one. But she tried to appear interested for her friends sake.

"So what's it about?"

"I don't know yet exactly, but it's basically about two brothers who-"

Someone interrupted Becky from behind Emma. Someone with an all too familiar, charming voice. "Excuse me, is this spot taken?"

Emma closed her eyes slowly. She took a few deep breathes to steady herself. When she opened her eyes again, she saw Becky's eyes dart from her face to the guy behind her. She had a very sly look on her face as she answered for Emma. "Actually, I was just leaving. You can have my seat." She and Emma both got up to hug each other. "Have fun!" she whispered into the shorter girl's ear. Emma just rolled her eyes.

As she watched Becky exit the building, she waited for the man behind her to sit down. She didn't have to wait long.

"Miss me?" asked the Trickster, raising an eyebrow.

"Nope. Not at all. Why are you here?"

"Awww, I missed you. I actually do enjoy out time together." The Trickster turned to the Bartender. "She'll have a Morning Glory."

"No, she will have Corona."

"Come on, you know you only have beer and shots when you're with your brothers or other hunters. I know for a fact that you _love_ Morning Glories."

Emma glared at him. "You know, it's really creepy that you know that. Have you been spying on me or something?"

The Trickster pretended to think about it. "Hmmm… Yes, as a matter of fact I have been spying on you and your brothers. But the reason I know what drinks you like is because you told me. On our _date._"

"We did NOT-" Emma began loudly, then cleared her throat when people started to look at them. She blushed a little and then started again in a whisper. "We did _not_ have a date. What we had was a trick to distract me so you could keep on pulling deadly pranks on people. That is not a date. It didn't count." Emma groaned inwardly. She knew she sounded like she was denying it way too much.

Apparently the Trickster thought she was too. "If you say so, sweet cheeks." he said with a smirk.

"If you aren't going to tell me why you're here, I'm going to just leave." She stood up to prove her point.

"Why? Do you want to continue this somewhere more…private?" The Trickster snapped his fingers.

Suddenly Emma found herself and the Trickster in a private room, sitting across from each other at a table. Their table was lit by a pair of candles, with a bottle of wine in an ice bucket in the middle. Emma's jeans and t-shirt had been replaced by a red dress, and her hair was suddenly neatly curled and styled. The Trickster was in a black sports jacket and matching pants.

Emma was outraged. "Are you insane? All those people just saw us disappear into thin air!"

The Trickster laughed. "Don't worry, I'm very good at being invisible when I want to be. Nobody saw anything."

Emma relaxed slightly. "Maybe so, but _why _are we here, exactly?"

The Trickster pretended to surprised. "You said, we had never been on a date, so this is a date of course."

"Dates usually are prepared in advance. And usually between two people who _both_ want to be on it."

"Yeah, well, most people don't hunt monsters for a living." Emma just rolled her eyes.

"Anyways… I couldn't help but notice you haven't talked to your brothers about what we discussed. You_ really _need to get on that. But," he continued. "That's not why I brought you here. I thought you could stand to have a little bit of fun while the knuckleheads are off playing don't drop the soap."

"I_ was_ having fun."

"Pssshhhh. What you were doing wasn't fun."

"It was to me. I suppose you're definition of fun involves a bit more blood."

He smiled. "Among other things, yeah. But in addition to knowing your favorite drink, I also know that you have always wanted to go to Rome." Emma raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah? So?"

"You haven't even asked where we are."

Emma looked at him suspiciously. Suddenly she noticed a pair of heavy drapes. She walked over and lifted them up a little. In the distance she could see the Colosseum. She quickly dropped the drapes again.

"Come on. Am I amazing or what?"

* * *

All right, so maybe Emma was having a _little_ tiny bit of fun. Ok, she was having the time of her life. But she felt guilty for every moment. Well, she knew she _should_ feel guilty for enjoying it. After a few glasses of wine, the Trickster had taken Emma on a walk through Rome. He somehow seemed to know Rome like the back of his hand, taking her down hidden side streets and narrow alleyways that all seemed to lead to every sight she had wanted to see her entire life. Emma suspected that he was most likely using some sort of time-space manipulation power to get them there so quickly, (another hint was the fact that no matter how many times she looked at her watch, the time never changed) but she didn't care. She didn't even care that they were breaking and entering into some of the sights, such as the Colosseum.

"How many people get to have their own private tour of the Colosseum?" The Trickster asked as they walked in the hypogeum. Emma just smiled. As she walked in the maze-like arena, she felt a bit of sadness.

"I kind of feel bad for wanting to see this place. Considering how many people died here for other's entertainment and all."

"It wasn't just for gladiators. They also held plays here, and brought animals in, like in a zoo."

"Yeah. But they also killed a lot of those animals in 'hunts'. They even set up scenery to make it look more realistic."

The Trickster just smiled. "They did. But a lot of them got what was coming to them."

Emma was shocked. "No. No way. You were _not_ around back in 80 A.D."

He just kept smiling.

"How old _are you?_" The Trickster shrugged.

Emma was in awe. The Colloseum, something she had been longing to see since before she could remember, was forgotten. One of the main reasons she had wanted to come to Rome was to see the place where so much history had taken place, and to see a place that was older than she could imagine. But if this man- _'creature'_ she reminded herself- was even older than this place… It was mind boggling.

"Come on." He said, in a gentle tone she had never heard coming from him, "We got one more place we gotta see."

_Author's note- Wow. That was kind of exhausting, I'm not gonna lie. It didn't come out exactly the way I wanted, but I think it's actually pretty good! And yes, that was the one and only Becky at the beginning! I'm really sorry if anybody here doesn't like the character, but I just couldn't resist adding her in for a cameo. And before anyone says anything, when Emma last saw her, Becky never met Sam, as he was in middle school and the girls were in high school, and Emma never told Becky about Dean because he was never there so there was never any reason to, and Emma doesn't like to reveal too much of herself and her family. Which is also why the girls never talked outside of school. I can decide things like that cuz I'm the writer. I don't want to hear any complaining from anyone. (please?)_


	13. Chapter 13

Despite all of the illegal things she had done just in this past night, Emma thought that this one particular act was going a bit far.

"We can NOT break into the Vatican!" Emma whispered loudly.

"Sure we can. We're doing it right now. And you don't really need to whisper. Nobody's around."

That was true. In fact, Emma hadn't seen anyone since around the Villa Borghese. And it was still a quarter to one according to her watch. But Emma was still extremely apprehensive about going through with this. No matter how much she might want to.

"Come on," the Trickster said cajolingly. "Just for a quick peek."

"But I can't! The Vatican has a strict dress code. I don't think this is appropriate." she said, motioning towards her short dress.

"Really? _That's_ what you're worried about?" Emma nodded. The Trickster sighed and snapped his fingers. Emma's dress was instantly below her knees, and a shawl appeared for her bare shoulders.

"I can't believe that that's what you were worried about."

"Among other things. _I _still can't believe we're breaking into the place the Pope lives."

"We're just going to the museums. Besides, you said you wanted to visit here. I'm completely fine skipping this place if you want to."

"No, I guess I don't want to miss this. Let's go."

* * *

Even though Emma was enjoying herself immensely in the museums, she couldn't help but notice that the Trickster seemed extremely agitated. She stopped talking to him after he snapped at her several times, something Emma found confusing since he was always played it cool.

"All right, then, are you ready to go?" The Trickster snapped when they entered St. Peter's Square.

"Ok, first off, quit snapping at me like that. You're ruining the night. Second, you were the one who suggested we go here in the first place, so stop rushing me. And third, I just want to see St. Peter's Basilica!" She motioned to the doors behind them.

"No. We're not going in there."

"What? Why?"

"Because I don't want to. Let's go." The Trickster reached to grab Emma's arm. She backed up before he could.

"No. Tell me why we can't go."

He gave a small growl of frustration before waving his hands at the doors. They swung open.

"There." He said. "You've seen it. Let's go." Emma remained strong.

"Not until you tell me."

The Trickster looked annoyed. "Because I'm a Trickster! I'm a pagan being. It was stressful enough for me to be here."

"Why would this be stressful?"

"Because!" he shouted. "It's filled with more reminders about what life _used _to be for me!"

"When?"

"Before all of this happened!" He gestured all around them. He winced, as though he had said too much.

"What, before Christianity became the dominant religion in most places in the world?" He hesitated, then nodded.

They were both silent for a moment.

"I'm sorry." Emma said. "I never even thought of it like that." The Trickster shrugged, and reached for her arm again. Once again, Emma backed up. "So you can wait right here." She turned back and entered the building.

"Emma!" He shouted. She ignored him.

_Author's note- All right, in case this is a bit confusing, basically Gabriel is concerned about entering the Basilica because he is worried that if he does, some of the angels might notice him again since it is considered a very holy place. _


	14. Chapter 14

Emma was a little worried that the Trickster might leave without her. She looked back towards the doors. He was still there, though he had a very angry look on his face.

"I just want to look for a minute or two. I won't be long, I swear." He just kept scowling at her, but he didn't make any attempt to leave, much to Emma's relief. For some reason, she felt like something in the building was somehow drawing her in, Emma wandered over to the nearest wall. She had never been a deeply religious person (though she did believe in God), but even she felt in awe over the religious history surrounding her. '_Sam would love it here,'_ she thought to herself. She and Sam had always talked about visiting here someday. Dean had laughed at them when they were younger. He didn't see the point as he thought that 'one church is the same as the next.'

She headed to the back of the building. She passed statues and paintings, wishing she could stop to look longer, but she didn't want to leave the Trickster waiting too long. She really thought he might leave in a seconds notice, but she couldn't quite shake the feeling that she _needed _to see something inside. Something very important.

Suddenly she reached a huge altar with a beautiful painting in the center. She recognized it immediately, as the Winchester's had seen a very similar painting a while back on a case in Rhode Island. Emma and Sam had suspected that it might have been real angels on that case, but it turned out it had just been a confused spirit. This had struck the two youngest Winchester's hard, as they had both been hoping that with all of the evil they faced in their life, there might have been some good to balance it out.

The painting was a depiction of the archangel Michael striking down Lucifer. It was lit up by candles, and for a moment, Emma thought that it was what she had felt drawn to. However, she still felt something tugging at her mind, slightly to her left. Looking around, she finally found what it was.

It was a small statue of a man dressed in a blue and white robe. She stared at it, transfixed. There was something so familiar about it, though she couldn't quite place it.

"How did you get here?" came a deep voice from behind her. Emma jumped out of her trance instantly as she spun around. There stood a very tall man-almost as tall as Sam- in a dark business suit.

Emma couldn't say anything. _'Where did the Trickster go? And where did this guy come from?'_ she thought, panicked. She looked towards the still open doors. He was gone. She couldn't help but feel hurt at his abandonment. She had actually been enjoying her time with him.

"Uh…I don't know how I got here. One second I was in St. Peter's square with my tour group, and the next thing I know, some guy hits me over the head. I think he stole my wallet. That was a while ago though, it had been daylight…My name is… Michelle…Singer." Emma couldn't believe that lie had just come out of her mouth. _'That was pitiful! You_ deserve_ to be caught just for that!' _

"I did not ask who you were. I know you are not a 'Ms. Singer'. Now tell me how you got here Emma Winchester, when you are supposed to be in Arkansas." the man said, his face showing no emotion.

"How do you know my name?"

"Answer the question."

"All right, obviously we are at an impasse here, so I'm going to just leave now. See ya." Emma started walking towards the doors. Suddenly the man appeared out of nowhere in front of her. He grabbed her wrist.

"You are not supposed to be here. Now. You _will _tell me how you disappeared from Arkansas and then somehow appeared on the other side of the world." Emma glared up at him.

"Dude, you seriously need to let go of me. Like, right about now." Instead of letting go, the man's grip tightened painfully.

"Fine then." Emma made a fist with her free hand and punched the man right under his right eye, something that should have made him let go instantly.

Instead, now her hand felt like it was broken. The man hadn't even flinched. It had been like hitting a brick wall. Emma stood there for a moment, looking like a complete idiot, her mouth opening and closing silently before she got out a quiet, "Oooooww." She shook her hand up and down a few times.

Suddenly a very familiar voice rang out. "Get it now, Emma? This is exactly why you should always listen to me. Say it with me. The Trickster-is-always-right." The man in the business suit tore his gaze off of Emma. The Trickster had suddenly reappeared, and was now leaning against the doorway.

"Who are you?"

The Trickster shrugged. "I have a lot of names. It's not really important who _I _am, though, is it Nathaniel?" Confusion spread over the man's face for a moment, the only emotion he had shown yet.

"How do you know-" he began before being interrupted by the Trickster.

"How about you let go of the girl now?" Not waiting for a response, the Trickster snapped his fingers. Suddenly Emma was standing besides the Trickster. She rubbed her wrist, then grimaced as pain shot through her hand. He didn't even glance at her before he started walking towards business suit man. The man reached into his suit and pulled out a long, silver knife. Although the Trickster was several inches shorter than the other man, he easily caught and held on to the man's arm as it swung towards him. Never once letting his smile drop, the Trickster and the man disappeared with a snap of the Trickster's fingers. Staring at the spot, Emma slowly backed out of the building into the cold night.

She looked at her watch. It had started moving again. Did that mean that Trickster was really just going to leave her there?

Suddenly she hit something. She spun around (she really had been doing that too much this night, it was getting annoying), and stared up at the Trickster. "How's your hand?" he asked casually.

"Throbbing." she admitted. He picked it up gently and put his other hand on top of it. The pain became sharper for a moment, then was gone.

"Who was that man? How did you know who he was? Better yet, how did he know who I was?" The Trickster shrugged.

"Oh, just a guy I knew way back. Way, waaaaay back. He's been following you guys for a while."

"How come he didn't recognize you?" she asked.

"I've changed a bit since then."

"Where did you take him?"

"Why are you worried about him or something? He's fine. Probably." he admitted.

"All right, last question. What was he? You said he had been following us for a while. Is he a demon?"

The Trickster just grinned. "That is the sixty-four dollar question, isn't it? Let's go." He snapped his fingers.

_Author's note- The statue of Gabriel I described is not actually in St. Peter's Basilica, it is in the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. It is a Pisan piece from the 14__th__ century. So yeah. I really don't think I like this and the last couple of chapters I put in. Gabriel seems kind of out of character. *sobs* So I'm really glad this part is over._

_Oh, and in case anybody was wondering, Gabriel himself didn't walk in there, it was a copy of him. And he had to disappear to go make it. Can anyone guess what Nathaniel was? (Because it wasn't completely obvious)_


	15. Chapter 15

_Author's note- Sorry that this chapter is kinda bad. It's mostly just filler for the chapter that comes next._

Emma suddenly found herself in her hotel room. Outside her first story window she could see the impala outside. She looked at her wrist. According to her watch, it had only been ten minutes since she had left the bar. She looked back towards the doorway. The Trickster was there.

"So what was that about?" she asked.

"What was what about?"

"This whole night. Why go to the trouble?"

He shrugged. "I dunno? I was craving Italian? I was bored?" He walked closer to her until he was directly in front of her. "To get you to trust me so you'll do my bidding?"

Emma backed away. "I still don't trust you. And I don't believe that you really want to help us."

The Trickster sighed. "Really? After all of this, you can't even consider that I might be telling the truth? Anyway, deep down, I know some part of you agrees with me."

Emma shook her head. "Nope. I don't."

"You will eventually." he said, a hint of sadness in his voice.

"Maybe. But not today." Emma replied. "Who was that guy back there? What did you call him? Nathaniel?"

The Trickster draped himself on the couch by the door. "Nice try. It's not important who he is. He's gone now."

"That knife he had… it was different from any other kind I've ever seen. And I've seen a lot of knives."

The Trickster grimaced. "If you don't stop asking questions, I'm going to have to erase your memories. Trust me, you're not going to find anything about him _or_ his knife_. Just leave it alone." _

"How can I leave it alone? You said he had been following me and my brothers! I need to know if they're in any danger."

"Well, they're not. At least not from that dude. Trust me."

Emma rolled her eyes. "Hmmm, let me think. Nope! Still never going to trust you!"

They looked at each other for a moment. The Trickster looked away first. He raised his hand, about to leave.

"Thank you." Emma said, before he could snap. "I've always wanted to see Italy."

The Trickster looked at Emma for a moment before shrugging. "Don't thank me. I was just trying to get you to do what I wanted." He snapped his fingers and was gone.


	16. Chapter 16

_Author's note- I want to apologize for not updating sooner, but I really didn't want the chapter before this going out alone on account of how horrible it was. Anyways, I want to thank everyone who has reviewed or favorited this story. You guys rock!_

Several weeks after Emma's trip to Rome, the Winchester's stopped at a diner for some dinner. Emma was in the back, trying to get some sleep. However, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't fall asleep. There was a pit in her stomach that kept growing. Although Sam was the one who was supposed to be psychic, Emma could not help but feeling something bad was going to happen.

"Hey, don't forget the extra onions this time, huh?" Dean said loudly.

"Dude, shut up. Emma's asleep. And we're the ones who have to be in the car with your extra onions." Sam whispered back. Emma could almost hear Dean smirking. Suddenly she popped up.

"Get me a salad. I'm hungry." she chimed in.

"Crap! I thought you were asleep." Dean said, startled.

"Nope. How am I supposed to sleep with the radio blaring?" Emma replied.

"You could sleep through a train wreck." said Dean.

"Well, I can't tonight, ok?"

"Whatever." Sam turned to go get the food. "Hey, see if they have any pie. Bring me some pie!" Dean shouted to Sam's back. "I love me some pie." He turned around. "Do you want some?" Emma shook her head.

"Not all of us have the good fortune of being able to eat like a pig and not get fat." Emma said jealously. Dean just smirked at her.

"Suit yourself." Suddenly the radio became staticky. Dean started fiddling with it before it turned off completely.

Emma looked up into the café. Sam and the other patrons had disappeared. She nudged Dean and pointed towards the diner. Both siblings reached for their guns and ran inside.

When Emma opened the door, she saw that the customers in the diner hadn't actually disappeared. Instead, they were all slumped onto their tables with their throats slit.

"Sam?" Dean yelled. Their younger brother was nowhere to be found. "Sam?" Dean yelled again, louder this time. He pulled the back door open and looked outside. Emma pointed to the door. It was covered in sulfur. They ran outside, screaming their brother's name. Eventually they returned to the impala.

"We gotta get Bobby." Emma said, afraid of what had happened to her brother. The pit in her stomach grew until it seemed to consume her entire body.

* * *

"So Ash said that he knows where Sam is?" Emma asked from the back of the impala.

"Not exactly." Bobby replied. "But he said he's got something big that involves Sam. He said it's big."

"I still don't know why he couldn't say what it was on the phone." Emma said, leaning back into the seat.

After admitting that they weren't going to be able to find Sam, the two older Winchesters had immediately gone to Bobby's for help. After picking him up, Dean had called their friend Ash, an M.I.T. dropout for additional help. Ash had called them back a few hours earlier to tell them that the trio had to come to the Roadhouse to talk to him, though he refused to tell them what it was about.

"What the hell?" Dean asked suddenly, pulling the impala into the driveway of what used to be the Roadhouse, the bar that their friend and fellow hunter, Ellen Harvelle, had owned. However, the bar was no longer there. In its place was a large pile of smoking rubble.

"Oh my god." Bobby said softly as they climbed out of the car. Emma stepped into the remains of the building, terrified of what she would find. The two men followed her.

"Do you see Ellen?" Dean asked.

"Nope. No sign of Ash either." Bobby replied. As soon as he said that, Emma noticed something sticking up from the rubble. She walked over carefully. Picking it up, she saw it was a watch. A watch that was attached to a very burnt body. Ash's body. She quickly dropped it. Tears started welling up.

"Oh, Ash, no." Emma had liked Ash. She loved how laidback he was about everything. And now, because he had been helping them, he was dead. Angrily wiping away tears, Emma looked up at her brother. "So what do we do now?"

Before he could answer, Dean doubled over, grabbing his head.

"What was that?" Bobby asked, rushing over.

"I don't know. A headache?" said Dean.

"Do you get those often?"

"No. Must be the stress." Dean chuckled. "I could have sworn I saw something."

"You saw something? Like a vision? Like the ones Sam have?" Emma asked quickly.

"No!" Dean said. "Sam's the psychic one, not me." He doubled over again, groaning.

"Dean!" the other hunters shouted.

Dean looked up at them. "I saw him. Guys, I know where Sam is."

* * *

Emma, cursed with insomnia less than twelve hours before, was having the opposite problem at the moment. No matter how hard she tried to stay awake, her eyelids kept getting heavier and heavier until she finally nodded off. Almost as soon as her eyes closed, she started dreaming.

_Emma was alone in the woods. She knew her brothers were in trouble., but no matter how hard she ran, she couldn't reach them. She could see demons flying past her in their smoke forms, but none of them paid her any attention. "Sam!" she yelled desperately. "Dean!"_

"_They can't hear you Emma." She twisted around. There was the Trickster._

"_Please! You have to help me!" she yelled, running up to him and grabbing his jacket. _

"_I can't. I'm sorry. But you and Dean can't help Sam. Not without severe consequences." he said in a sad voice._

"_Screw the consequences! I don't care what it costs, he's my brother!" Emma shook him. Gently, the Trickster took her hands._

"_I don't mean just for you. This is bigger than just you and your family. We're talking the fate of the world here. Believe me." Emma yanked her hands out of his. _

"_No! I don't believe you! This is just another trick. I bet you're the one who took him!"_

"_No tricks this time. Do you want to see how this is going to end if you don't stop this? Will that make you believe me?" The Trickster put one hand on her forehead._

_Emma saw a city burning. Bodies lay on the streets rotting. People were running around, attacking each other. The word 'Croatoan' had been written on the side of a building in what looked like blood. The scene faded. She saw herself, lying on the ground bleeding from the head. Sam stood nearby, dressed all in white. It looked like he was hugging their brother until he reached for Dean's head and snapped his neck effortlessly. The scene faded once more. Dean was being held up in the air by hooks attached to chains. She could see where the hooks pierced his body. She heard his screams ringing out, calling her and Sam's names. Emma reached out to help her brother-_

"Guess we're walking from here." Emma woke to her older brother's calm voice, so different from the desperate cries she had heard seconds before. She quickly scrambled to open the door, falling out of the car just in time to vomit.

"Emma! What's wrong?" Dean asked running to where she was struggling to her knees. He kneeled down next to her, careful of the spot where she had been sick.

"I-I saw Sam." she lied, knowing she couldn't tell Dean about the Trickster. Her voice broke. "I think… I think it's too late." She could barely comprehend what the Trickster had just shown her.

Dean grabbed her shoulders roughly. "What do you mean? What did you see?"

Emma could barely speak through her sobs. "I think he's dead." she cried.

_Slap!_

Emma's head swung to the side. The entire left side of her face was on fire.

"NO! He's not dead! Don't you ever, EVER, say that!" Dean shook her to emphasize.

She just stared at her brother as he stood up. Bobby came over to help her up as Dean opened the trunk. He held her as she cried into his shoulder, overcome with grief at the hopelessness of their situation. Sam would die. And if he didn't, the entire world would somehow fall apart.

Dean shoved a gun at Bobby. He let go of Emma, glaring at Dean as he took it. He gave another one to Emma. He wouldn't look at her, even when she grabbed it from him. She didn't even notice the pain in her cheek anymore.

"Let's go." Dean said, moving towards the path.

_Author's note- Yeah Gabriel's kinda OOC right now. I'm really sorry about that. Don't worry, everyone will be back to normal in just a few chapters. _


	17. Chapter 17

As the hunters trudged through the mud to find Sam, Emma quickly fell behind, thinking about what the Trickster had shown her. Could her family really be the cause of what she had seen? They had spent their entire lives saving people, how could they be the cause of the end of the world?

Emma remembered seeing Sam kill their older brother in her vision. She remembered seeing herself, dead. Why would Sam ever do that? He had to be possessed by something. Or it was a shape shifter. Whatever it was, it couldn't have actually been Sam. And Dean… Was Dean really going to go to Hell? Why? She knew that Dean wasn't perfect, but there was no way he could go there. She winced, just remembering the scene.

Suddenly, she heard people fighting ahead of them. Apparently Dean and Bobby had heard it too, because they all started speeding up. As they turned the corner, they saw Sam. Emma had never been so relieved to see her little brother. However, that relief quickly turned to horror as she saw a man with a knife sneaking up behind him.

"Sam!" she yelled, trying to warn her brother. She started running towards him. She hadn't gone more than ten feet before the man reached her brother, stabbing him deeply in the back. "No!" Emma and Dean screamed in unison.

Dean quickly passed Emma, even though she had had a head start. He had already caught Sam as she fell to her knees besides her brother. As Dean babbled to him, Emma barely noticed the hot tears on her face. Her hands fluttered uselessly, like birds caught in a cage. She knew she should check his back to see the wound, but she couldn't bring herself to look at the thing that was obviously killing him. She grabbed her hair helplessly as Dean talked about how he was going to take care of him. Emma sat, crying into her knees as her little brother died.

Emma sat leaning against the outside of the hotel she and Dean had taken Sam's body. Bobby had just left. She felt hollow. Sam was dead. Her baby brother, the little boy who used to ask her to check underneath his bed for monsters, had just been murdered in front of her eyes.

Suddenly she heard a snap. She didn't even bother looking up.

"What?" she asked, no emotion in her voice.

"Is that it? Are we skipping the pleasantries?"

"Go away. You proved your point. You know that Sam's dead."

"Yeah, I do. And I am really, truly, sorry. I actually do know how it feels to lose a brother." Emma looked up. The Trickster stood there, looking down at her. He really did look sympathetic.

"Why are you here?" she asked.

"Because I think you know what's going to happen next. You know what Dean's going to do." Emma looked away.

"I do. He's going to do exactly what our Dad did for him." she let out a humorless laugh. " He always did everything he could to be just like him. I also know he's not going to listen to me, no matter what I say." She stood up. "It's too late. I messed everything up, and because I was too stupid to listen to you, the world's going to end. Now. Go. Away."

"Maybe."

She looked back at him. "What do you mean, maybe? Maybe what?"

"I mean, _maybe _the world will end." said the Trickster.

Emma looked at their hotel window, imagining the sight behind the closed curtain. "As in… maybe it won't?" she felt a small glimmer of hope pop up in her chest. She turned back towards the Trickster. "Can you save Sam? Can you stop Dean from having to-"

The Trickster interrupted. "I can't. Even if I could, this scene would just happen again in a different way, very soon."

"But… I thought you said that the vision I saw was going to happen if we kept trying to sacrifice ourselves for each other." Emma was too tired for this. All she wanted to do was go to sleep and never wake up.

The Trickster nodded. "It might happen. That is what I saw after all, and I'm usually pretty good at the whole "future" thing. But I have been known to be wrong on very rare occasions. I'm hoping that this is one of those cases, for your sake. But you see…" he walked over to Emma until he was standing right in front of her. "How do I put this nicely?" He tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Win or lose, what happens next depends on your family now. The ball is rolling, Emma, and what Sam and Dean do next will determine where it's going to go. You however…You're kinda in the way."

Emma looked up at him. "What do you mean? You just said this had to do with my family."

"It does. It involves your brothers. But you're stuck as the third wheel. So you need to vamoose for now."

Emma began backing up. "Yeah, well, if it involves my brothers, it involves me too. I'm not going to just ditch them."

"Mmmm, yeah, you are." said the Trickster. "You kind of have to. Destiny and all that crap."

"Well you can take your destiny and shove it."

"Look, this is really for the best. What's going to happen in the next couple of months will be awful for you. Your brothers are going to start to change. And not necessarily for the better. They might even end up turning against each other completely. And you will be stuck in between them. Torn. Believe me, you _don't_ want to be in that position. I've been there." the Trickster looked like he was remembering something extremely painful, and if Emma hadn't been afraid of what he was planning for her, she would have felt bad for him. He shook his head a little.

"Anyways," he continued. "This will be far less hard on you. You would thank me if you knew what you were going to miss."

"I'm not missing anything. Get away from me and my brothers." She took out her gun and pointed it at the Trickster. He didn't look impressed.

"You know that's not going to do anything. Come here." He grabbed Emma's arm before she could get off a shot. Holding the arm with the gun away from him, he pressed his free hand hard against Emma's chest. She felt a searing pain that seemed to spread across her entire chest for a moment, and eventually dulled to a throb.

"Ouch! You son of a bitch, what did you do to me? It felt like you just branded me or something!" Emma yelled, trying to yank herself free from the Trickster's grip.

"That's basically what I did. Some ancient Enochian is now written across all your ribs. I'm shielding you, so no one can come snooping around later. Just hold still for a few more seconds. " he said calmly, as if he did this everyday.

"You can't do this. I don't know what you're up to, or where you're planning on taking me, but my brothers _will_ find me." Emma said, glaring at the Trickster.

"No they won't. Because they won't even remember you. And neither will anyone else. It won't even be like you vanished, because it will be as if you were never even here in the first place." Emma's eyes widened in panic. "Oh don't worry. I'm not going to kill you. I really do like you. I've never lied about that. You're just going to take a break from being Emma Winchester for a while. Do you have any name preferences?" The Trickster snapped his fingers, and the pair was gone.

_Author's note- Hey, I just want to thank everyone who has reviewed or favorited this story! You guys all rock! Sorry for the late update, I was really busy the last week or so._


	18. Chapter 18

_Author's note- Hey guys! This part of the story takes place about a year and a half after Gabriel __erased Emma's memory, so about somewhere in the middle of the fourth season._

Emma leaned against the counter of the empty diner. She was listening to the steady rainfall tapping loudly against the roof. The sound had started out soothing, but had slowly gotten more and more annoying as her shift at Marge's diner went by. She had a later shift that night, 3 pm to 11. She was cleaning her fingernails, trying to wait patiently for the last ten minutes of her shift to go by, when she heard the bell above the door entrance jingle. She quickly turned, stashing her nail file in an apron pocket and put on a smile to face the new customer. Her fake smile quickly became real when she saw who had come in.

"Hey Sarah. Your shift doesn't start for another ten minutes."

Sarah shook off her umbrella and folded it up. "Yeah, I came in a little early for once. Give me some of those cupcakes!" she replied, reaching for the glass plate filled with the sugary treats. She gave a smile when she bit into one. Although it had been a slow day at the diner, the tray of cupcakes was nearly gone. Whenever Emma brought in some of her homemade deserts, they always sold out fast. As they were talking, a man walked into the diner.

"I don't suppose you want to start early?" Emma asked her friend, who continued to happily eat her cupcake. Sarah shook her head and pointed to her mouth, indicating she was much too busy chewing. She sighed. "Fine, I'll get him."

Emma walked over to the booth where the customer had sat down. "Hello, my name's Emma, and I'll take your order today. What can I get you?" The customer, a man in his forties glanced up at her. He looked Emma up and down, staring far too long at her chest. She pulled at her shirt uncomfortably. '_Creep' _Emma though, not letting the smile fall from her face. "Do you need a minute to decide?" The man just continued to . Annoyed, but not letting it show, Emma put down the menu she had brought over. "I'll just give you a minute." She started to walk away when the man suddenly grabbed her wrist, and twisted her so she was facing him.

"What is that tattoo on your shoulder?" the man demanded. His breath smelled horribly, Emma thought, grimacing. Like rotten eggs or something. She tried to jerk her hand out of his grip, but he was holding on too tightly.

"I don't know. It was just a design I thought was cool and decided to get one day when I was drunk. Let go of me. _Now."_ It was true. She had no idea what the tattoo was. It was a pentagram inside of a sun. She had gotten the idea from a dream she had, thought it had looked cool, and gotten it on her 21st birthday. She had regretted getting it soon afterwards, but she couldn't afford to get it removed.

"I can't believe it. It's actually _true. _There's a third Winchester."

"A third what? Sir, I don't know what you're talking about, but I think you need to leave now." Emma said, trying to tug her wrist free fruitlessly.

"But I know what I want now." He said in a sickly sweet voice. "It's just not on the menu."

"Hey. Let her go dude, before I call the cops." Sarah had gotten off the stool in front of the counter and had started walking over to the booth.

"Shut up. This doesn't concern you." the man said, glaring at her. He slowly looked back at Emma. Something about him rooted her to the spot. She had dealt with creeps before, but this man was definitely different. He scared her.

As if he could read her thoughts, the man's hand tightened around her wrist. He grinned down at her. "I can't believe I'm the one who found you. Crowley said you were real, but we all just thought he had finally gone crazy. The girl Winchester. I wonder what he would do to get his hands on you…"

"Sir-" Emma started to reply, but was quickly interrupted.

"Is there a problem here?"


	19. Chapter 19

All three of the people in the diner turned to look at the person who had spoken. Standing in the doorway was a man. He looked like he was in his late 20's, fairly tall with a muscular physique very obvious beneath his t shirt and leather jacket. Although he had addressed the entire room, his gaze was fixated on the man holding Emma's wrist.

The creep looked fairly amused. "Todd Williams. Did you really manage to track me down all the way from Maine? I must be getting rusty in my old age."

"Yeah, well, the trail of dead housewives got a little cold around Ohio, but I managed to pick it up again in Indiana." said the newcomer, with a look of disgust over his face.

The man in the booth shrugged. "We all have our own tastes. I would love to sit here and hash out all the old memories we share, but _this_," he gave Emma a small shake, "is unfortunately much more important to me right now than taunting you. So if you don't mind…" He made a shooing motion with his free hand.

Todd looked at Emma. "What, a waitress is more important to you than me? I'm hurt. I really thought we had something special, Raum."

Emma was still terrified of what this man was planning on doing with her, but she was also starting to feel annoyed that these two men were talking as if she and Sarah were no longer in the room.

"Look, I don't have any clue what either of you are talking about, but you both need to get out before we call the police."

The man in the booth, _'what had the man called him? Raum?_' stood up, forcing Emma to step back a few feet. "You," he said, looking down at her, "won't do anything. As for your friend…" he looked over at Sarah, who was reaching for her cell phone. He pointed his free hand towards her. Sarah slammed into the wall, hard enough to make the pictures around her shake loose from their nails. Emma screamed. Sarah looked as if someone was choking her.

Without thinking, Emma reached onto the table and grabbed the salt shaker. Breaking the top of the glass container, Emma poured the condiment into the man's face. He screamed in pain as smoke seemed to come off the places where the salt had come into contact with his skin.

When the man had started screaming, Sarah had fallen from her place on the wall. She didn't get up, but Emma thought she was still breathing. Emma's mind was racing. _How did I know to do that?_ and _What is that man?_ were the two most common things that kept popping up in her head repeatedly.

Suddenly Emma remembered Todd. She spun around, looking for the man, when she suddenly heard a shot rang out. The sound in the small room was deafening. She looked behind her, and saw that Todd had snuck behind Raum and her while they had been fighting. It looked like he had shot the older man. Emma stared at him in disbelief. It looked like Todd had shot him directly in the chest, but he seemed fine, despite the fact that he had fallen across the room.

"How did you know that salt hurts them?" Todd shouted over to Emma.

"What do you mean 'them'?" Emma shouted back.

Todd didn't have time to respond, as the other man had gotten up and was coming at him. Despite trying to avoid him, Todd went down hard when Raum hit him across the face. Emma ran for another nearby table for the salt again.

Raum pointed a hand at Emma, and she felt an invisible force lift her off her feet and slam her into the wall, just like what had happened to Sarah.

"Right." he said. "That's getting really annoying." He held Todd up against the opposite wall with his other hand. "This is my lucky day. I get to wipe out two hunters in one night. Although I guess I really should keep _you_ alive." He looked at Emma. "What Crowley wants to do with you is his own business." He smirked at her. "But that doesn't mean I can't have a little bit of fun first." Both of his hands tightened, and Emma felt the same invisible force that had thrown her wrap around her neck. Just before he could do any damage to either of them, Emma heard a snap.

Instantly Emma and Todd fell to the floor in a heap, unconscious. Raum looked startled, then confused.

"Really, man? I leave town for one little prank, and _this _is what I come back to?" Raum looked to his right. Leaning against the counter was a man. He picked up one of the cupcakes off the plate the girls had been eating from earlier and bit into it. "I mean, come on. I jut got her to forget the _last _demon that had come by a couple of weeks ago."

Raum looked at the man closely. "You're one of those Tricksters, aren't you? Leave now, pagan. This has nothing to do with you."

"Actually…" the Trickster said through a mouthful of cupcake, "It does. I kinda have invested a lot of time in the girl over there, and you're here messing things up."

Raum laughed. "I don't care _what_ kind of interest you have in her. The girls a Winchester. I'm taking her to Crowley."

The Trickster grew serious. Setting down the cupcake, he strode over to where the demon was standing. "How do you know who she is?" he said in a deceivingly soft voice.

"Back away, Pagan." Raum raised his fist to hit the smaller man. The Trickster grabbed his fist easily and twisted his arm behind his back in several quick moves. He pushed Raum into the wall. The demon glared at him in shock.

"I'll ask you again. How do you know who the girl is?"

"What are you?" Raum asked.

The Trickster quickly regained his former, relaxed attitude and let go of the demon, backing away. "You really might as well tell me. There's no way I'm going to let you leave here until you tell me everything I need to know, and this will all just go that much quicker if we all cooperate with one another."

The demon laughed. "What, you think a few fancy tricks are enough to scare me? Even if I wanted to tell you, I couldn't. He would kill me in more painful ways than you could imagine."

"And what exactly do you think I'm going to do to you if you don't tell me?" asked the Trickster with a slight shrug. When the demon raised his hand to fight again, the Trickster smirked.

"All right, we're gonna do this the fun way." He snapped his fingers. The demon's arms and legs came together with a quick snap. He fell to the floor, straight as a broom.

The Trickster strolled over to where Raum had fallen. He flipped the demon over with his foot so he was face-up. "I think it's only fair that you can't move at all. After all, this is what happens to the poor suckers unfortunate enough to be your meat suits, isn't it? They're stuck inside their brains, unable to control their own bodies while you make them do what ever your little nasty heart wants. How do you like being the frozen one?" He unscrewed a nearby bottle of salt and placed the bottle back on the table. He pretended to look away as he knocked it over onto the demon's face. "Whoops."

The salt made the demon's face boil where it touched him, but he was unable to make a single sound. The Trickster leaned in close to him. "Now are you going to tell me?" he asked in an innocent tone. He snapped his fingers.

Raum opened his mouth. "Do whatever you want. I'm not going to tell."

The Trickster rolled his eyes. "Look, I'm really not that into the whole "torture" thing. It's just not my style. But then again, I never really do the things I do to get information from people. I don't really care about being funny or clever when it comes to demons like you."

Raum remained silent.

The Trickster sighed and snapped his fingers. Suddenly there was two of him. His copy bent over the demon and snapped his fingers, making himself and the demon disappear. The original grinned to himself. He could make that demon talk, no problem. He walked over to behind the counter to check on Emma's friend. She was there, a little worse for the wear, but essentially fine. He would deal with her in a minute.

He then walked over to where the hunter was lying. He frowned to himself a little. Aside from the Winchesters, he didn't really care too much for hunters. He found them slightly annoying. However, since he had technically helped Emma a little, he thought he could be a little lenient with this one. He zapped him somewhere in Mexico City. He would probably be fine. Maybe.

The Trickster stood up and rubbed the sides of his head in exasperation when he reached Emma's unconscious form. This chick was really proving to be a lot of work. He missed the days when all he needed was some hot, temporary apparition to distract him for a night.

Not that he didn't still have the occasional distraction, but it had never been the same since he had met the Winchester girl. He had brought her to Cleveland to protect her from her brothers' destiny. Something about her had reminded him of himself, before all of _this_. She deserved to enjoy what little time she and the rest of the world had.

But seriously, this was turning into more work than he had planned. He picked her up and zapped them back to her apartment without bothering to snap his fingers. He placed her down on her couch. He was about to leave when he noticed her shiver. Rolling his eyes, he walked back to the couch and started looking for a blanket. Finally he found one underneath the coffee table. He tossed it over Emma, hesitated, and then fixed it to cover her completely.

The Trickster then touched the side of Emma's head lightly, changing her memory to forget the demon and hunter incident. As far she knew, Sarah had come in on time and she had left her shift with no problems, gotten home, and fallen asleep watching T.V.

The Trickster stood up. He needed to get back to the diner to change the other girl's memory too, and then he had to go interrogate the demon. He sighed to himself. It was going to be a long night.

**Author's note- I am soooo sorry about the lack of updates guys. I just started my first semester of college, and I have been incredibly busy ever since. I will really try my best to start updating more often.**


	20. Chapter 20

Emma stared into the nearly empty glass in her hands. In the remains of her now flat beer she could see the lights on the ceiling and the very tip of her forehead. Going out on a Wednesday night wasn't something she often did, but what was she supposed to do after walking in on her boyfriend doing the dirty with his roommate's sister? There was only one thing she could think of doing after throwing several hard and heavy objects at the pair, and that was to get severely wasted. And that was soon accomplished, with the help of five or six (or seven) shots and several other very unhealthy drinks.

She heard the bell above the door jingle. She tilted her head slightly to look and see who had come in. Two tall men had just walked into the bar. The taller one who reminded her slightly of a giant, was wearing a checkered shirt and had dark longish hair. The other was wearing a brown leather jacket and had shorter dark blonde/brown hair. For some reason they both reminded her of some people she had once known, but she couldn't think of who exactly. Suddenly she closed her eyes tightly. A sharp pain went through her brain, and she shook her head a little to clear it. The pain was gone almost as fast as it had arrived. When she opened her eyes, she was surprised to see they were both gone. She looked around the small bar. Neither one was anywhere to be found. She frowned slightly. She supposed they must have left. Maybe they had walked into the wrong building. Or maybe she was much more drunk than she had thought and was starting to imagine things. Either way, she was too drunk to really care one way or the other.

Putting down the money she owed on the bar, Emma got up unsteadily from the stool, nearly tripped, regained her balance, and then fell against the bar. She pushed herself up again and slowly walked out of the bar.

Walking down the street, carefully watching her feet to make sure they didn't trip, Emma's head quickly cleared with the unusually cold August night. Soon she was able to even walk in a relatively straight line. Thinking about how angry she was at basically every person on the planet, Emma started walking home.

Emma soon passed a townhouse with police tape across the front door. She knew this house. A young couple had bought it about a year ago. The woman had just recently died after she fell down the stairs. Emma had seen the police leading the sobbing husband out of the front door the night it happened when she was walking home from work.

Emma was about to pass the house when she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. She turned around a little too quickly and almost lost her balance but managed to keep upright, despite stumbling slightly. On the porch she saw a woman in a white nightgown staring at her. She wasn't quite sure why, but the woman seemed upset.

Suddenly she felt a huge gust of wind blow past. She saw the wind chimes on the porch swing violently, but the woman seemed unaffected. Emma had turned back around when she realized something that made her freeze. It had looked like the wind hadn't even touched the woman. Both her hair and her nightgown should have moved at least a little, but the wind hadn't moved either.

Emma swung back to face the woman, but she was gone. The door hadn't moved. It was like she had disappeared.

Emma shook her head. Maybe she was drunker than she thought.

Author's Note: Sorry that this chapter was just a filler, but I'm trying to set up the return of the boys… I will try my best to get the next chapter up in a couple of days!


	21. Chapter 21

Emma rushed into the diner, out of breath and flushed. "Sorry I'm late. Traffic was a bitch."

Sarah raised an eyebrow. "You don't drive. And you don't have a car. Do you even have a license?"

Emma pretended to be offended. "It was a joke. And of course I have a license. I just haven't had a use for it for about five years."

Her friend laughed. "Yeah. You should probably do something about that." She tossed Emma an apron. "I'll see you later tonight, right?"

Emma nodded as she concentrated on tying the apron behind her. "Yeah, I get off at 7, so I'll just meet you at the normal place, ok?"

Sarah turned towards the door. "Sounds good. See you then." As she was leaving, she kept the door open for a pair of policemen who entered the diner.

Emma smiled at the men. "Hello! Feel free to sit wherever you'd like . We're not exactly crowded today." The officers sat down at one of the empty booths.

After she had taken their order, Emma started to clean tables. She was sweeping under a table near the officers when she started to overhear some of their conversation.

"Another kid went missing over near Ashmore street again. She was the third one this month. The entire city is starting to panic."

"First that woman off's herself and now this? People are going to start to think the neighborhood is haunted."

Emma froze. The reason she had been late today was because she had started taking a longer route in order to avoid the house where that woman had died. She wasn't superstitious, and she certainly didn't believe in ghosts, but something there had scared her. She was starting to listen more closely when she heard the door open.

She quickly straightened up and walked back to the counter to greet the customer who had walked in. Standing there was a man in a green jacket. He had dirty blonde hair, and as Emma smiled at him in greeting, she noticed his eyes. They were a lovely caramel color. As she looked at them, the colors in them seemed to swirl like the melted candy they reminded her of. While she was looking, she realized there was a dull throb starting in her head. She groaned inwardly. For the past month or so, she had been getting the worst headaches she had ever had in her life.

"Hello, may I help you?" she asked him. He smiled back at her.

"I don't know. Last time I came in here there were these amazing cupcakes on the counter. I don't suppose you have any more of those, do you?"

"Sorry, I brought those in as a special occasion. We do have some pie though."

The man seemed disappointed. "Darn. Yeah, I guess pie will be fine. Can I also get a chocolate shake?"

"Sure. Feel free to sit anywhere you'd like." Emma replied, gesturing to the all-but empty booths around the diner. Instead of going to one of the booths the man sat down at one of the stools at the counter. As Emma prepared the pie and the milkshake, she could feel his eyes on her back. When she turned around, the man gave her another grin and thanked her.

Emma left him to check on the other customers. The cops were ready to leave. She was disappointed that she hadn't gotten to hear more about the house and the missing children, but she couldn't think of that for very long. The throbbing in her head was getting worse.

"Excuse me miss, can I get another drink?" asked a customer near the back of the diner. Emma walked over to get the man's glass. As she turned around to get his refill, she felt a pinch in a very inappropriate area. She turned around to glare at the man, who tried his best to look innocent. - She rolled her eyes and turned back around. It wasn't worth the hassle, and she would be the one to probably get in trouble for upsetting the customers. She didn't see the new customer glaring over at them.

Returning to the counter, Emma asked if she could get the newest customer anything else.

"No thanks." he said with another smile. As cute as this guy was, Emma was getting a little freaked out by how much he smiled. She felt like he was up to something somehow. He paused a little. "Does _that_ happen a lot?" he asked, indicating to the rude customer.

Emma shook her head. "No, actually most people are really polite. But it doesn't really matter. Karma gets everyone eventually." She laughed a little, to show she wasn't being too serious. The man raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah. Karma. Just desserts and all that." He gave one last grin, this one much more wicked than the others. It was actually closer to a smirk.

The man took out a ten. "Keep the change." He got up, pulling out a bright red sucker from his jacket. _Jeez._ Emma thought._ A milkshake, pie and a sucker all in less than an hour? How much sugar does this guy need? _Her own teeth hurt from the thought of it.

The man pulled the sucker out of his mouth just before he left. It made a slight popping noise. "The names Gabe by the way." He left before Emma could reply.

Emma went back to the rude customer, who was ready for his check. She kept well out of reach as he finished paying and left. She noticed that her head was suddenly feeling much better.

* * *

Tim felt pretty good. He barely remembered the waitress he had groped earlier. He had come into town on business, but he figured that could wait until the next day. He looked at his watch. It was 8:15. Time for a drink.

Two hours later, Tim was chatting with what 4 or 5 Bud Lights told him was a very attractive woman. They seemed to ignore the fact that she was nearly 6 foot, and very muscular. As they left the bar to return to his hotel room, the bartender laughed to himself. He wondered if Tim had noticed the 'woman' had a very large Adam's apple.


	22. Chapter 22

Emma considered herself a fairly logical person. She didn't avoid walking under ladders, never threw salt over her shoulder if she dropped any, and until last year, had had a black cat named Sgt. Pepper. She had thought she didn't believe in the supernatural.

So why was she at the public library looking up hauntings on one of her precious days off? After searching through her memory of the night she had seen that woman, Emma was starting to have some very illogical doubts about what she believed in. The woman had matched the description of the woman who had died perfectly. She was actually starting to believe that ghosts might be real.

And to top it off, another kid had gone missing yesterday. Emma had actually known this one, a sweet little girl who had sold Emma girl scout cookies for the last two years. Her name was Hannah. She had a gap in her teeth, and wore her hair in a braid almost everyday. Emma was shocked when she had heard she was missing, and more than a little angry. Since the police in the city hadn't been doing much, Emma had decided to investigate a little on her own.

Which explained the stack of both old and new newspapers sitting beside the library computer Emma was at, stories about murders and famous hauntings. And the fact that she was on something called 'The Ghostfacers' website. She had just emailed them to see if they knew about something like this happening before, when she heard a voice behind her.

"Getting ready for Halloween?" Emma spun around. After a few seconds she recognized the man who had come into the diner the other day.

"Hello!" she said, a bit too cheerfully, quickly going to another tab on the computer. She stood up. "Yeah, the place I'm working at is setting the mood for the season and…stuff." Emma said, gesturing to the pile of morbid articles. She had always been a horrible liar, and this one didn't even sound like a legitimate excuse. She quickly changed the subject. "It was Gabe, right?"

The guy smiled at her. Even though Emma had thought he always looked like he was up to something when he smiled, she did notice it was a nice one.

"Right. But I don't think I ever caught your name."

"My name's Emma."

"Nice to meet you." Gabe took a candy bar out of his pocket and began to eat it. '_What is it with this guy and sweets?'_ Emma thought to herself. She noticed her head was beginning to hurt, so she reached into her bag to get the bottle of aspirin she had started to carry around with her. Gabe looked concerned.

"If you don't mind me asking, what are those for?" he asked, pointing to her medicine.

"Oh, nothing. I've just been getting these headaches lately." Emma replied with a shrug. She took two dry.

"That's really not good for you, you know."

Emma raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, neither is that." she said, pointing at his snack.

Gabe shrugged. "What can I say, I got a sweet tooth."

"Uh huh. Well, as great as that is, I got to go copy these." She grabbed the stack of articles and headed over to the copiers. Gabe followed her. "Hey, I didn't mean to make you mad. I didn't realize you were so touchy about…pills." He touched her shoulder to turn her around. As he did, Emma felt the pills start to take affect. '_Wow, talk about fast acting.' _She didn't just feel better, she felt _great_.

"Sorry. My head just really hurt. I didn't mean to be rude." Seriously, she was starting to feel amazing.

"Don't worry about it." Emma looked at him. It was weird, but she sort of felt… connected to this guy. Not only like she knew him, it was deeper than that. She wasn't sure if she liked the feeling. But at the same time, she knew she liked him, and she wasn't the type to warm up to people quickly.

"Hey, this is gonna sound weird, since we just met and everything, but do you want to get some coffee? I was just about to go get some as soon as I was done with this." Emma pointed to the newly printed copies. Gabe smiled, and for once, this one didn't make Emma feel like he was up to something.

"Sure, why not?"

Emma walked up to her apartment. She couldn't help smiling. A lot. After her and Gabe's coffee (She had her's black, his was some insanely sweet mocha blast thing.) they had gone on a walk. They had only talked, but it had still been more fun than she had had for a long time. And even though he was going out of town for a few weeks, he said he was going to be stopping by the diner a lot more often.

When she reached her doorway, she remembered the reason why she had gone out in the first place. Logging onto her laptop, she checked her emails. The Ghostfacers had responded. As the email popped up, so did their annoying theme song.

_Dear Emma,_

_Thank you for your interest in the paranormal! As the leading experts in this field, we appreciate you coming to us first for all your ghost fighting needs. It sounds like what your neighborhood could be experiencing something commonly known as a 'lady in white'. Unfortunately, the Ghostfacers are low on funds right now, but we do know someone else who could help you might be able to help you. Sam and Dean Winchester. Keep in mind that these two are huge jerks, who will probably screw you over the second they get a chance. But they can get the job done. _

_-The Ghostfacers_

_P.S They should be called the Whinechesters. _

Attached to the email was a phone number. Emma looked at her phone, doubt creeping in. Was she really going to do this? This was insane. This is what crazy people did. Only a crazy person would call someone to tell them to come get rid of a ghost that they weren't even sure they had seen. Emma shook her head. This wasn't going to happen. She walked into the kitchen to get something to eat, heading to the cupboard. She opened it up. It was almost empty, except for a box of Thin Mints. Thin Mints she had bought from that little girl who had gone missing. Emma sighed deeply, and walked over to the phone. Not letting herself think about it, she dialed the number. A rough voice picked up after the third ring.

"What. What is it?" The voice sounded angry. Emma was taken a little startled.

"Is..Is this Sam or Dean Whin-I mean Winchester?"

"Yeah, now what do you want? We're kind of busy at the moment."

"Well, and I'm in Cleveland, Ohio. There's been some kids who have gone missing and I think there might be something…you know, _unique_ about it."

"What kind of unique?"

"You know… like supernatural… or something. I think the people who gave me this number called it a 'lady in white?'" Saying it out loud made Emma feel even more stupid. She could feel her cheeks flushing.

"Really? Lady, we're really freaking busy at the moment, we don't have time to deal with every little ghost that pops up." After that Emma heard a click and a dial tone. She stared at the phone in shock. "Douche bag." she mumbled to herself.

Dean threw his phone onto the seat. "What was that all about?" Sam asked.

"Oh I don't know, something about a lady in white and some kids going missing in Cleveland. I'll get Bobby to get a guy on it. Maybe that Todd guy." He stared at the road ahead.

"Hey. We're going to find out where she is. Castiel said that he's doing all he can to get some more information-"

"Yeah, why is it there's no information on her? Hell, how could all of Heaven just 'forget' that we had a sister? Bunch of dicks, I'm telling ya."

"Really though, how could they not know? I mean, our memories can be tampered with, yeah, but there was literally _nothing, _anywhere on us having a sister. What could be powerful enough to make _everyone_ forget?"

Dean shook his head. "I don't know. But I'm telling you. Chuck better know something."

_So obviously I'm messing with the timeline a little. This is right before The Real Ghostbusters, when Dean and Sam get the 911 from 'Chuck'. That episode and Abandon All Hope are being switched with Changing Channels. Please review! Reviews make me happy inside!_


	23. Chapter 23

Emma stared at the abandoned house, duffel bag in hand. Though the house had only recently been abandoned, it was already starting to look rather decrepit. She gripped the bag tighter as a cold breeze drifted past her. Stepping onto the porch gingerly, she moved to the front door.

Opening it, the first thing Emma noticed was that it was starting to smell strangely as well. A house this new would never normally be in a state as bad as this house was. She didn't know if that was usually the case with hauntings. She didn't really know much about anything still when it came to hauntings. After the Winchesters had hung up on her, she had called the number on the Ghostfacers website. After a bored sounding man had answered, Emma had explained her problem and how the Winchesters hadn't been able to help her. Though they had tried to convince her to not go after this thing alone, they had eventually given her some insights on what could help her out. Slowly she walked into the kitchen.

Reaching into her bag she pulled out the EMF meter she had bought online. Looking for the 'on' switch, she wondered again why she was doing this. EMF meters? Four containers of rock salt? What was she doing? Emma didn't believe in this kind of stuff until about a week ago, and she still wasn't entirely sure she did completely believe. Then she remembered the little girl in the braids and switched the little device on.

It immediately went crazy. No matter where she pointed it, the needle kept pointing to the top. Emma quickly turned it off, afraid that the noise would bring to much attention to her.

"What am I doing?" she asked herself aloud. "This is insane." She turned towards the kitchen door to leave. Before she could, the door swung open and a man stepped into the room.

Before Emma could say anything, the man brought up his hand and threw something at her. Emma felt hundreds of little objects hit her face and neck. She felt a few pieces go into her eye.

"Ow! Son of a bitch!" Emma put her hand over her eye tightly. Through her free eye, she saw the man as a sweep of confusion went over his face.

"Wait, you mean you're not the ghost?" Before he could ask anything else, Emma had managed to somehow sweep his feet out from under him. Looking down at him, Emma was shocked. '_How did I do that?'_ Emma was too mad to be shocked for long though.

"Does it look like I'm a freakin' ghost? Damn it, what did you throw at me?" Emma yelled.

The man looked embarrassed. "Ummm, it's salt. Who are you?" He was slowly starting to get up.

Emma glared at him, which was hard to do since she was trying to blink the bit of salt out of her eye. "You first."

The man straightened his jacket. "I'm Harry Spangler. You might know me from the hit website 'Ghostfacers'."

"You? You're one of the guys I called? Dude, I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you this, but you kind of suck as a ghost hunter. Do you usually have trouble telling the difference between humans and ghosts?"

Harry backed off a little. "Sorry. I'm not used to doing this thing alone, but the Ghostfacers decided that this case needed to be investigated, especially since those two douche nozzles decided they were to good for this case. Unfortunately, we could only afford to send one of us here."

Emma rubbed her eye a little. "Oh. Well thanks for coming up here to help. Soooo, what are we supposed to do?"

Harry looked at his shoes. "I don't actually know."

Emma looked at him in disbelief. "You don't know? I thought you were supposed to be like an expert or something!"

"Yeah, well I am. But I already went to go see the ex-fiancé, and it turns out that the chick here was cremated."

Emma looked confused. "Then why is she still here? I thought if there were no remains, there couldn't be a ghost."

"Turns out, she gave blood a few days before she died."

"Really? That counts? What are we supposed to do, go rob the local blood bank?"

Harry shrugged. "Like I said, I don't know exactly. It could be that she has some sort of unfinished business."

"All right. First thing though. We have to find the missing kids." Emma grabbed the EMF meter from her bag. "Do you know how to use this? I tried before, but I couldn't get it to work."

Harry took it from Emma's hand and turned it on. Once again it went crazy. "Do you have a cell phone on you?" he asked. "It could be messing with the readings if it's on." Emma reached into her pocket and turned off her cellphone. Immediately the EMF meter quieted down. She took it back from Harry.

"All right. Let's gank us a ghost." Emma said, looking at Harry.

_Sorry it's short! Another chapter coming in a day or two!_


	24. Chapter 24

"Ouch! Stop stepping on my heel!" Emma hissed to Harry, who was following her a little too closely as the duo continued to search around the abandoned house.

"Sorry. It's just.. It's kind of dark in here." Harry whispered back.

Emma raised an eyebrow. "Really? A ghost hunter who's afraid of the dark. I'm _so _glad they sent you out here."

"It's not the dark! It's just that I think I saw a rat a minute ago. Sweet mother of Frodo, I hate rats." Harry said with a shudder.

Emma rolled her eyes. '_Next he'll be telling me he's afraid of spiders.' _she thought to herself. She turned the corner. They were coming to the end of the hall. At end on the right was a large door. When they reached it, Emma tried to open it, only to discover it was locked.

"Hmmm. This is the only door so far that's been locked. Seems kind of weird." Emma tried pulling the door more forcefully.

Harry pushed Emma out of the way. "Step aside. I got this." He took a few steps back and began to run at the door.

"Harry, I really don't think that's a-" Before she could finish, Harry had already bounced off the heavy door.

The man started moaning from the floor. "Owww. How do they make it look so easy?"

Emma reached down to help him up. He stood aside as she reached into her bag and took out her credit card. She was hardly aware of the fact that she was even picking the lock until she heard a 'pop' as the door came unlocked. '_How did I do that?'_ she asked herself.

As she pushed the door open, Emma suddenly felt the already cold house drop several degrees. Sensing something behind her, she spun around to look at Harry.

Out of nowhere, a woman had popped up. Her back was to Emma, but Emma could tell that this was the ghost that had been haunting the house and neighborhood. She looked completely solid, which confused Emma slightly, she had thought a ghost would be at least slightly transparent. Her solidity became even more pronounced as she charged at Harry, holding him up against a wall.

Emma dove into the duffel bag and pulled out the bag of salt and a small iron chain she had brought along. As Harry sputtered slightly, Emma threw a handful of the salt at the ghost.

The ghost hissed as though in pain and turned to face Emma. Before she swung the chain at her, Emma noticed the ghost had what appeared to be a black eye and bruises up and down her arms. Emma wondered where those injuries had come from, as the police report had stated that the woman had died from slitting her wrists. As the ghost approached her at a breakneck speed, Emma barely had a chance to swing the chain. However, the chain then hit what would have been the ghost's torso. Instantly, the ghost disappeared .

Harry was getting up from where he had fallen. Emma looked at the door that had just opened. "I think she might have been trying to hide something…" she said, looking inside. There was a long, dark set of stairs leading down into what looked like the basement. "Of course it had to be someplace creepy." Emma said, sighing to herself. She started down into the dark room. "Here goes nothing," she said, taking the first step.

Walking slowly, flashlight raised, she reached the bottom step. On the opposite wall was the light switch. Carefully walking across the room, Emma flipped the switch.

What she saw in the brightened room surprised her. All over the room were mats and blankets. There was food wrappers and juice containers littered everywhere around the room. Games and toys lay scattered. Slowly, all of the children who had been reported missing came out of hiding.

Emma quickly gathered her wits. "Okay kids, everything's ok now, you're safe." She bent down so she was eye level with them. "You can go home now." Surprisingly, one of the younger ones started whimpering, and then crying softly. In fact, all of the children looked distressed at seeing their two rescuers.

"What did you do to Mommy Lisa?" He asked in a breaking voice. Emma was even more shocked. "Mommy Lisa? You mean the woman who lived here?" He nodded. "Well, I made her go away for awhile." The little boy started crying again.

Emma was more confused than ever. "You kids…You do know…That she was a _ghost_ right? She kidnapped you!"

One of the older children stepped out. It was the little girl who had gotten Emma started in this. "Yes, but she told us when she got us that we wouldn't have to go back."

"Go back where?" The little girl just looked at her feet, not saying anything. "Go back home? Why don't you want to go back home?" Instead of answering, the little girl just pulled up her sleeve. Bruises trailed up and down the length of it. "Sweetie who did this? Was it your… was it your parents?"

She shook her head. "My big brother. He watches me most nights. She took me away from that. She took us _all away from that." _

_Emma stared at the children. She could see fading bruises, cuts and what looked like several cigarette burns over most of them. Harry spoke first. "Not to sound insensitive or anything, but why would this ghost care about these kids. The ghosts I've met haven't been exactly tender hearted." Emma thought back to the bruises she had seen over the ghost. Before she turned to Harry to explain her idea, her EMF meter started going off in her pocket. She looked into the corner. One of the smallest children ran to meet the ghost who had suddenly appeared. Emma turned to face the forever young woman._

"_You were trying to save them, weren't you?" She took a step closer. "Your fiancé… He was abusing you. Until one day, you couldn't take it anymore." Emma gestured to the ghosts' wrist. "I'm so sorry. I can't imagine what you've been through. But you can't keep these kids here. They need to be around adults." The ghost looked at Emma angrily. "Not their abusers, obviously." Emma thought back to the article she had read for the woman's name. "Carla… I swear to you, I won't let these children go back to the people who were hurting them. But it's time for you to go. You've saved them. But you need to be at rest now." _

_Carla stepped back from the child she had been holding. She looked at them all sadly before she nodded. "Harry, take the kids upstairs."_

"_Umm, as senior ghost hunter, I think I should be in charge here-" Carla gave him a dirty look. The ghost facer quickly gathered the kids up, promising cookies. Emma smiled and turned back to Carla. "You did a good thing. Thank you." _

_The ghost stepped closer, touching Emma's hair. "I didn't help everyone." She said softly. Emma was startled. She didn't know ghosts' could talk. "He's abusing you too. Not in the same way, perhaps, but it's still wrong." _

"_Who are you talking about? I haven't been abused." Carla just looked sad. A bright light was filling the room. Carla waved, and stepped into it._


	25. Author's Note

Just a quick author's note… In case some people are confused by the last chapter.

We have to remember that ghost's see things in black and white. There is no middle ground for them. Gabriel took Emma away from her brothers and made her forget her life as a hunter, against her wishes. Plus Emma's been getting bad headaches lately, which may or may not have something to do with Gabriel. In the ghost's opinion, that makes Gabriel just as bad as any abuser. She even admitted it's not the same way as the others were abused. He's not actually _abusing _her.

Just to clear that up.

Thank you for the reviews!


	26. Chapter 26

Two weeks later, and Emma still couldn't believe it. She had faced an actual, real life ghost. Ghosts were _real._ What was she supposed to do with that? And more to the point, what _else _was real? Were monsters real? Demons? Angels?

And what had the ghost meant that Emma had been abused? She had asked Harry about it before he had left. All he could tell her was that ghosts only saw things in black and white, that there was no middle ground. If the ghost had sensed any sort of mistreatment, a liar ex-boyfriend, or maybe an absentee father, it could tell itself that had counted as abuse.

Emma couldn't wrap her head around it. Fortunately, she didn't have to at the moment, as her date came back with their ice cream.

"I hope you know that this," Gabe said, pointing at her treat distastefully, "does _not_ count as ice cream. Or any dessert for that matter."

"It's a non-fat tofutti rice dreamsicle." Emma said, unwrapping it," it's better for you than ice cream." As she was preparing to take a bite, the ice cream suddenly slid off it's stick, forcing Emma to jump back to avoid getting hit by it. She groaned. "And now it's gone."

"What a shame." said Gabe, taking a bite out of his cone, a huge triple scoop chocolate fudge thing with _sprinkles _of all things on top. "And that was the last one too. I guess I'll just have to get another one of mine for you." Before she could answer, he had started walking back towards the vendor.

"Only one scoop!" Emma yelled to his back. "And no sprinkles!" He raised his hand in acknowledgement. Emma smiled to herself. She hadn't really wanted the dreamsicle anyway.

Emma thought about how she had ended up here. Gabe was the complete opposite of the guy she usually went out with. Her usual type was usually the type who spent too much time in the gym, and not enough time thinking with their upstairs brain. Not that they usually lasted very long. In fact, she couldn't think of the last time she had gone out on a date before the last guy, the one who had been doing the dirty with his roommate's sister. It hadn't been before the headaches had started. Speaking of which, Emma reached into her purse for her bottle of aspirin. She hated taking another one so soon after the last one, but her head was killing her.

As she swallowed, her phone rang. "Hey Sarah!" she heard her friend crying on the other end as she told Emma what had happened. "Wait, hold on, what did he do to her?"

As Gabriel stood in line, he worried, something he was not used to doing. Something was wrong with Emma. He had healed her countless times already, but her headaches kept coming back. He couldn't determine what was causing them either. Not that he was an expert in the human anatomy (except in some of the more fun aspects), but they seemed to be getting worse. He had wanted to keep an eye on her from afar after that meeting in the diner, as he had been for almost two years, but something had made him want to become a part of her actual life. He felt happier when was around her, which was also something he wasn't accustomed to. He hadn't needed anyone else's company since he had left his family.

And yet here he was. At the carnival with a former hunter. He had known that he was going to feel a connection to the third Winchester, but he hadn't known it was going to be this intense. And it wasn't just the attraction he felt towards her, it was something else entirely. Something about her made him actually give a crap about something, and he wasn't sure that he liked the feeling after so much time spent trying to convince himself he didn't give a rats' ass about anything.

Gabriel was also worried about the recent demon activity that had been surrounding Emma. Since Raum, he had been searching nonstop for this Crowley fellow. So far, he hadn't been able to locate him, or find out how he knew about Emma being a Winchester. Gabriel could hardly believe he was putting this much effort into one chick. Especially one he wasn't even sleeping with, _and_ who's brothers had jump started the apocalypse, yet another thing he had to deal with.

And, to top off everything, he hadn't really smited anyone for a long time. The last one was that jerk in the diner, and he had gotten off easy. Gabriel felt like he was going to go insane if he couldn't tear some new jerk a new one soon.

The line for the ice cream wasn't getting any shorter. Impatient, Gabriel walked over to a nearby tree, and quickly snapped a new ice cream cone into existence, making sure it had lots of sprinkles on it.

He walked back to where Emma was standing. He saw her putting her phone into her purse, a worried expression on her face.

"My friend Sarah just called me." she explained. "Her uncle just beat up her Aunt again. Pretty badly I guess. She had to go see her, of course, they're just down in Wellington, so I have to go cover her shift." She looked at the ice cream in his hand and smiled. "I thought I said no sprinkles."

"Yeah well, I knew you were going to try to cut this party short, so this one's mine too." Gabriel couldn't believe it, but he was actually a little disappointed in having to leave so soon, and he didn't think it had anything to do with not getting a chance to go on the Ferris wheel (Did humans still think those were thrilling or something?).

"Nice try," she said, snatching the cone out of his hand. "I didn't say I had to go right this second."

"So her uncle is a bit of a dick, huh?" Gabriel asked. Emma snorted.

"That's putting it lightly. This is the third time he's put her into the hospital. He keeps getting forced to do anger management courses, but obviously they don't work."

Gabriel grinned internally. Oh yeah. It was smiting time.

_Quick update huh? Things are starting to come together! Thank you for all your lovely reviews. Remember, constructive criticism is always appreciated._


	27. Chapter 27

"Sammy, what are we doing in the middle of nowhere Ohio? We should be out looking for Emma." Dean asked, turning 'Dr Sexy M.D' off.

Sam straightened the cuffs on his suit again. "Yeah Dean, I know. And exactly where do you propose we start with that? We have no leads, no clues, no anything. Hell, we don't even know what she looks like. We have a name, and we know she has an anti-possession tattoo. That's all Chuck knew."

Dean grunted, begrudgingly admitting Sam was right. Sam continued. "Anyway this is why we're here. Dean looked at the police report. "Officially they're calling it a bear attack. Not many bears left in Ohio though, and definitely none that can leave a giant hole in someone's front door." Dean turned to the autopsy results.

His eyebrows raised. "A bear attack where the guy isn't even mauled? It looks like this guy was beat to death."

"Exactly," Sam said., "And if my idea turns out to be right, we might be able to get a little more information about where she is by the end of this case."

"What the hell do you mean by that?" Dean asked, standing up off the bed.

"I don't want to say yet, not until we know a little bit more. Come on, let's go question that woman."

Emma sat with Sarah in the police station, her arms around her friend. "I mean, I know he was a dick, but he was still my uncle," Sarah sniffled in Emma's arms. Emma held her friend.

"I know, sweetie. I just can't believe it was a bear attack. How often does that happen? And in Ohio of all places?" Sarah asked, rubbing her eyes. "And my aunt kept mumbling about something being green and angry."

"Your aunt was under a lot of stress, sweetie. She didn't know what she was seeing." Emma said, backing up. "Here, let me go get you some Kleenex. Your aunt should be out of questioning soon."

Walking up to the receptionist's desk, to grab the box of tissues, Emma passed by two men dressed in suits coming out of the questioning room. Emma had a strange feeling that she knew them. The taller one (which was saying a lot, since the shorter one was also very tall) gave her a funny look as well. Behind them was Sarah's aunt. After Emma's friend had received the call from her aunt about her uncle's death, Emma had volunteered to take her friend down to Wellington to help comfort the widow. She had canceled a date with Gabe to be with her, but Emma knew how close Sarah had been to her aunt.

"Hello Cathy." Emma greeted. "Are you ok?" She held the box of tissues up awkwardly. Emma had never really known how to deal with grieving people, not since her parents death when she was 6. She didn't even remember them that much.

"Thanks sweetie, but I don't need those. I hate to admit it, but I think Sarah might be more upset than I am. It's hard to really love somebody who acts like they hate you whenever they get a little mad."

"Yeah well, Sarah's waiting for us when your ready." Emma led the older woman back down the hall. When they got to Sarah, the two suits were talking to Sarah.

"Right, well if you can think of anything, and I mean anything, you can go ahead and call this number," said the shorter one. He handed the girl a card and he and his partner walked out of the building.

"What did they want?" Emma asked.

"They wanted to know if there was any mental illness in our family. Aunt Cathy, what did you tell them?"

The older woman blushed. "I told them that I thought it was the…the hulk that killed your uncle."

Sarah blew her nose. "The doctor told you, you were in shock. Honey, it wasn't real." She took her aunt's hand. "Come on, lets go to Karen's place." Karen was Sarah's cousin.

"What does the card they gave you say?" Emma asked as they walked back to their car.

Sarah handed it to her. "Just their names. Do you know, I actually think he was trying to hit on me? Who tries to hit on a person who's uncle just died?"

Emma rolled her eyes in disbelief, then looked at the card. 'Agents Plant and Agent Page.' A phone number was listed below. '_Plant and Page… Weren't those the two guys from Led Zeppelin?' _Emma thought to herself. _'What kind of agents were they?'_


	28. Chapter 28

"Sarah, didn't I ask you to bring some cups? Because right now, I don't see any plates. Or cups for that matter," Karen called out from the kitchen.

"Crap. Can't people just eat off the napkins or something?" Sarah replied from the couch she and Emma were sitting on.

"Sarah, it's a memorial. For our Uncle. People can not just eat off napkins, okay? And besides, what would people drink from?"

"Karen, it's almost a 30 minute drive into town! There has to be something in there."

"I can go into town and get some," Emma volunteered. "I'd love to help in any way I could." Plus, it would mean she could get out of this house. As much as she hated to admit it, Emma just didn't know how to act around memorials. Especially when she hadn't known the person personally, and the things she did know about him didn't make her like him at all.

"Thanks, Emma. That would help a lot. Do you know your way around town?" Karen asked.

"Yeah," Emma lied. She didn't really know, but how hard could it be to find a Walmart in such a small place? She grabbed her keys. "I'll be back as soon as I can." She stepped out onto the front porch and headed towards her car. When she was at the door, she heard the front door slam. Sarah came after her.

"Karen wanted to know if you could get some crackers too. Not saltines, but 'nice ones'." Sarah handed Emma a twenty. "I expect the change, shortie."

"Nope. Consider it a labor fee." Emma smiled at her friend. She hugged her friend. "I'm sorry about your uncle."

Sarah hugged back tightly. "Thanks." Emma didn't want to let go of her friend. Suddenly she had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. Finally though, she stepped back.

"I'll see you in a little bit." As Emma drove away, she turned around to wave goodbye, the feeling in her stomach still there.

* * *

All right, so apparently a town this small didn't actually have a Walmart. Which would have been nice to know, but what would have been even nicer to know was that her crap car was on the fritz before it crapped out on her on the outskirts of town. Emma unbuttoned her sweater and threw it into the backseat. It was getting hot, and as she wasn't going to be at the memorial anytime soon, she figured the tank top she was wearing would be fine for now. As Emma started to walk back into town, she passed an old abandoned warehouse. She walked by it, feeling strangely curious about what was on the inside. Her curiosity was quickly replaced by fear as a black car suddenly peeled out of an alley way she was standing by. It barely came to a stop before hitting her, making her jump backwards. Her fear became anger almost immediately.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!" She kicked the hood, a mistake since she was wearing only tennis shoes. She glared at the two men inside, and was surprised to discover it was the two F.B.I guys from the police station.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey." The driver growled, getting out. "Watch what your kicking. Where did you come from?"

"Dean, relax," said the taller one, also getting out of the car. "Miss, are you all right?" He walked over to where Emma stood. "We really need you to vacate the area, there may be a situation going down." He touched her shoulder, starting to lead Emma back the way she came, when he noticed her tattoo on her shoulder. He looked startled.

"Oh my god. Where did you get that tattoo?"

Emma was surprised. He didn't look like an ink nut. Why would he care about her tattoo. Before she could even reply, he interrupted her. "Is your name Emma by any chance?"

"How did you know that?" she asked, backing away slightly.

"Sam, what is it?" The driver asked, coming up to them.

"Dean, I think it's her," he replied, looking excited. Dean looked over to where Emma was standing, looking confused.

"Sam, are you sure? She's kind of… short, isn't she?" He stuck his hand out insultingly low to the ground. Sam gave him a look as Emma glared at him.

"Look I don't know who you think I am, but I haven't done anything to make me wanted by the F.B.I or anything."

Sam held up one of his hands. "No, no it's nothing like that. We're not even real feds. We're the Winchesters. We're here about… Well, it doesn't really matter, but we need you to come with us."

"Wait, Sam and Dean Winchester? Like the Ghosthunters Winchesters?" Emma asked, incredulous.

"Please don't lump us in their group, but yeah, those Winchesters. How do you know about them- or us for that matter?" Despite his short comment, Dean was starting to look excited too.

Emma's mouth dropped. "I _called_ you! I needed some help with a ghost thing a month ago, and you hung up on me!"

"You hung up on her?" Sam asked, turning around to face his partner. Dean looked uncomfortable.

"Yeah, well we were busy… It's not like I _knew_ it was her."

"_Who_ do you think I am? Wait, if you guys are here, does that mean there's a ghost or something here? How come you came for this one, and not for mine?" Emma asked, more indignant for some reason than curious about how they knew her name.

"Speaking of the reason why we're here, before we do anything else, we need to do a binding spell." Dean pulled out a small pocket knife.

"WAIT." Emma said, backing even further away. "What do you think you're going to do with that?"

"Dean, wait-"

"It's just a little blood binding spell. Believe me, we need to do this now before-" he said, looking for a vial in his jacket. When he looked up however, Emma was gone, having taken off at the words 'blood binding spell.' Sam gave his brother another look before they both took off after her. For such a short person, she really was fast.


	29. Chapter 29

As Emma ran towards the abandoned warehouse, she tried to think of a plan. Two insane men were chasing her, trying to get some of her blood. She didn't know if they were vampires or what, but she didn't want to stay to find out. Ghosts being real were crazy enough, thank you very much. As she approached the building, she saw an alley, and ran towards it.

Only to discover it was blocked off at the end. Looking back, she saw that the men were gaining on her. She took the alleyway anyway, and trying to forget what she was doing, jumped onto a closed dumpster and hid in the dark shadows the building was casting.

The men were right behind her. Thankful she was wearing dark clothes, she stood perfectly still.

"Where the hell did she go, Sam?" asked the shorter one. He was facing the wall closest to her, looking at the end of the alley. The taller one was closest to her, his back to her. Mustering up her courage, she leaped off the dumpster and used all her body to push him into the smaller one. Taken off guard, the two fell into a heap.

Unfortunately, Emma also fell. She scrambled to get to her feet before the men, but she felt a hand grasp her ankle, making her fall again.

"Sammy, just hold her still for a second! She's tiny, how is she stronger than you?"

The tall one had managed to get to his feet, and was trying to hold Emma by the waist. Emma was making it as hard as she could, which included trying to bite him. Despite her struggles though, the two managed to pull her arm straight out.

"Sorry 'bout this, but we can't take any chances that whoever did this won't do it again," said the shorter one, pulling a knife. Emma screamed.

Looking panicked, the tall one quickly covered her mouth. "Sorry!" '_Not as sorry as you're about to be,' _Emma thought to herself as she finally managed to bite him. "OW!"

"Got it!" The short one had cut Emma's arm slightly. She had actually hardly even noticed it, but she could see it still bleeding slightly as he put up a small vial to gather some of the drops. Emma could see it was already full of what looked like blood and bits of leaves or something in it. "CAS!"

Emma tried to scream again as a man appeared out of nowhere. "I am assuming that this is the third Winchester," said the new man, as if he saw these two kidnapping girls everyday. '_How do I know they don't? I just want to go home and forget about these two crazy people and their stupid blood thing and their pet ghost on steroids or whatever he is! Please make them let me go!' _she prayed. She told herself that she was never going to get involved in anything supernatural ever again. No more ghost hunting, no more Winchesters, nothing. This was too rich for her blood.

"Is it complete?" Asked the man who was wearing a trench coat, holding the vial up so he could look at the contents.

"Yeah. Now go hide it somewhere where no one's gonna find it." With a small sound like the fluttering of bird wings, the trench coat man was gone. The man covering Emma's mouth slowly let go. At this point, Emma was too shocked to scream.

"What was-who-_what the hell just happened?" _Emma finally asked.

The tall one answered. "It was a blood spell. That was Castiel, he's a… Well, he's a friend. I'm sorry Emma, I know this is hard to take in right now, but believe me when I tell you that this needs to be done for now. We'll take off the blood spell when we get this thing figured out."

"What's a blood spell do?"

"It makes it so you're bound to us. You can't go that far from us without just popping back near one of us again."

'_All right Emma, let's just play into this weird game. Don't make the crazy people mad.' _"And why the hell did you guys want to turn me into the human yo-yo?"

"It's…complicated. Look, let's just go back to the hotel, we can explain it all there. I'm Sam, by the way, and that's Dean. Sorry to have to introduce ourselves like this." He stepped back. Emma started to nod her head.

"All right. We'll just go back and-" Emma took off running again. She was so glad she had been in track all in high school. There was a door right in front of her. Not caring where it went, and praying that it was unlocked, she pushed it with all her might. She could hear the two guys behind her as she managed to get it open and ran inside.

* * *

For a second it was almost blindingly light. She had to stop to shield her eyes. But it was gone as soon as it had come. Blinking, she looked behind her. Somehow the two men were suddenly wearing scrubs and lab coats. They looked as surprised as she felt. Not only that, but the abandoned warehouse had somehow turned into a hospital. Doctors and nurses went strolling by her.

Not caring anymore, Emma sat down against the nearest wall. "I've gone insane. This is what a mental breakdown feels like." Her voice sounded amazingly controlled and matter-of-fact. She was proud that she was managing to cope so well with the loss of her mind. More than ever, she wished she had just gone on that date with Gabe. She missed him all of a sudden, and the normal life she had when she was with him. Away from the ghost business, and now this mess that she was in.

Sam knelt down in front of her. "It's going to be all right. You're not insane."

"Yes I am. I should have suspected this weeks ago. It all started with the ghost thing, I should have seen this coming."

Sam reached for her shoulder. Emma noticed that her clothes hadn't changed. "It's a lot to take in. And until we figure out what all _this _is," he said, gesturing to the hospital around them, "we can't really tell you how we know you. This isn't the way we wanted to do this, I'm so sorry, but you have to believe me when I say that I know you can do this." He stood up and offered his hand to her. She slowly took it.

'_Right. So there is one of two things going on right now. A.) I've lost my mind and am probably in an institute somewhere, or B.) This is all actually happening._' Either way, Emma didn't see what good just sitting there could do. She stood up.

"All right then. So you don't think I'm insane. Then where are we? What happened when we came in through that door?"

Dean spoke up first. "I think we're in Doctor Sexy M.D." He looked around excitedly.

Emma and Sam stared at him. "Like the t.v show?" Sam asked. Dean nodded.

Emma raised an eyebrow. "Well, at least I know I'm not the craziest one here."


	30. Chapter 30

Emma covered her face in her hands and let out a long breath, staring at her surroundings. Somehow she had ended up stuck with two guys who had apparently been looking for her for some reason, and who were know arguing about whether or not they were stuck in 't.v land'. '_This cannot get any weirder. I just want to go home,'_ she kept telling herself. Though she did think she was taking this remarkably well. Like the whole ghost thing. Did that mean that she had actually gone kuku for cocoa puffs? Trying not to think about it, she turned to a character she recognized.

"Excuse me, Dr. Wang?" Emma asked, lightly touching her on the arm. However, the woman acted like she couldn't see or hear Emma, and kept walking down the hall. Emma looked at her, confused. She turned back to Dean and Sam, who were still talking about the characters. "That's Dr. Wang, the sexy but arrogant heart surgeon who-"

"Yeah, I know who she is. I watch this on laundry day. Did you just see that? She walked by me like she couldn't even feel me touch her. But Dr. Piccolo obviously saw you."

Sam rubbed his cheek. "Yeah she did. And I had no problem feeling her."

Dean looked at where the doctor had turned the corner. He looked like a kid in a candy store, he was so excited.

"I have no idea why, but there's Johnny Drake. Well he's not even alive he's a ghost in the mind of her," he said pointing at the doctor who had just come around the corner, "the sexy but neurotic doctor over there."

"Why do you explain everybody in the same way here? Everyone's the 'sexy but whatever'." Emma snapped, annoyed that he was ignoring her. She didn't care about the stupid show, she wanted to figure out how to get out of wherever they were.

"Ok, well, maybe since we're apparently supposed to be characters on this show," Sam answered before Dean could answer Emma, "You're supposed to be a character too. We're there any more ghosts on here?"

"Don't ask me, ask their biggest fan over there. I just watch this for Dr-" Emma started before Dean interrupted her excitedly

"For Dr, Sexy?" He said, eyes almost shining,

"No… For Dr. Michaels. He's a much better character than Dr. Sexy. Funnier."

"Dr, Michaels is _not _a better character. He's an cocky jerk." Dean said, looking angry.

"Like I said. Funnier." Emma had stopped paying attention to him, and was waving her hands in front of a flock of nurses going past them. None of them saw her.

"Oh boy." Dean whispered, his jaw dropping.

"What?" asked Emma and Sam at the same time.

"It's him. It's him, it's Dr. Sexy." Dean replied, looking flustered and even turning a little red.

"Doctor." Sexy greeted Dean.

"Doctor."

"Doctor."

Dean had to kick Sam before he answered him. "Doctor," he said, rolling his eyes.

"Emma!" Emma said sarcastically. She hadn't realized quite how stupid this show could be, until she started living it. Sexy looked in her direction. Emma could have sworn that he looked at her with narrowed eyes, but he looked away before she could be sure. Emma tried to get in his line of vision again, but he was looking straight at Dean as he talked to him about an experimental face transplant. Dean looked like he was at a loss for words, before looking at Sexy's shoes. He suddenly pushed the doctor against the wall, his composure quickly fading from crazy fanboy to the man she had seen back outside.

"You're not Dr. Sexy." Dean accused.

"You're crazy." The doctor looked barely fazed. Obviously even threats couldn't make him lose his cool.

"Dean, what are you doing?" Emma asked, confused by what had brought on Dean's sudden change. _'Confused.' _Emma thought to herself. '_It's the word of the day.'_

"Really? Because I could've sworn that part of what makes Dr. Sexy sexy is the fact that he wears cowboy boots. NOT tennis shoes."

"Yeah, you're not a fan." Sam chuckled from behind them.

"Actually, they talk about it a lot on the show. Like, an absurd amount." Emma said, defending Dean's trivia knowledge. Sam just rolled his eyes again.

"Call security." Sexy told a nearby nurse.

"Yeah, go ahead pal. You see, we know what you are." Suddenly the footsteps stopped in the hall. Emma looked around. Everyone had frozen in their tracks. She looked back to Dean. As they watched, Dr. Sexy's face started to change. When it had changed completely, Emma felt her eyes widen as she covered her mouth in shock.

"You guys are getting better!" Gabe, her boyfriend said to Dean with a wide smile.

"Ga-" Emma started, trying to grasp what was happening. Almost before she had started though, Gabe gave the tiniest wave of his hand, and Emma discovered she couldn't speak. She touched her throat and tried to mouth a word. Nothing. As she was behind Sam and Dean, they didn't notice.

As they were talking and Emma was trying to make any sort of noise, she saw Gabe easily get Dean to let go of him by simply grabbing his hand. Dean made a pained face. Even through her panic she was startled. Dean looked like a strong guy.

"Hellooo." Gabe said suddenly in a 'duh' sort of voice, "Triiicksster."

'_What the hell is a Trickster?' _Emma tried to say, still voiceless. Gabe started pointing out all of his 'homemade' items, which included the set and the actors. Emma noticed her head starting to hurt again. A headache was the last thing she neede, and she left her medicine back in the car. Not that it did much anyway.

"Well how do we get out?" Dean demanded.

"That my friend, is the 64 dollar question. For you two at least. I think we need to get rid of the chick." Gabe answered, pointing at Emma. She looked at him, feeling betrayed. That feeling was quickly beginning to turn into anger. '_Someone better tell me what the hell is going on soon.' _she thought. First it was these two, and now _Gabe_ was somehow involved?

"Don't worry about her. She's not going anywhere." Dean said, still looking at the shorter man. Emma wondered what Gabe was to make these two so wary. Obviously though, they didn't like him, which made Emma hesitant to tell them that she was kind of dating him. Assuming, of course, she ever _could _talk again.

"Sorry guys, but we don't have the budget for a special guest star. See ya, sweet cheeks." He snapped his fingers. Emma felt like she was suddenly in a small black tube being pulled away, her breath catching in her chest, she couldn't see-

And suddenly she was back at the hospital. She blinked several times. Gabe furrowed his eyebrows.

"Like I told ya, she's not going anywhere. Blood binding spell."

"Look," said Sam, "We just want to talk. We need your help."

Gabe pretended to look thoughtful. "Hmmm. Let me guess. You two broke the world… And now you want_ me_ to sweep up your mess."

Emma tried to speak again. Luckily, Gabe noticed, and subtly waved his hand again.

"What do you mean, they broke the world?" She asked, thankful she could talk again.

"What, you mean these two muttonheads didn't tell you? Well, I don't want to give out any spoilers, so I'll let them catch you up later. In fact, since it looks like they're making you stick around, I'll even include you into the game. If you all survive for 24 hours, we'll talk."

Emma grew very cold. What did he mean by survive? What was he going to do to them? For God's sake, she thought he had_ liked_ her. She had liked him. A lot.

"Survive what?" Dean asked.

"The _game_!" Gabe said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"How do we play?"

"You're playing it."

"What are the rules?" Emma asked, glaring at him. He just wiggled his eyebrows and with a smile, disappeared in what looked like a flash of static. Emma rubbed her face.

"I am SO sick of people just appearing and disappearing."

"Yeah, well get used to it. It happens a lot now." Dean answered.

"Right. Wait, what did he mean that you guys broke the world? And why's he trying to kill us?"

"Because he's a dick, that's why. Hell of a plan, Sam, by the way."

"Whatever." Sam replied. "What do we do now?"

"You know what we're doing? We're leaving."

Emma nudged Sam's arm. "Girlfriend, 12'o'clock."

Sam barely avoided the small woman's hand. As she started calling him a coward again in a long drawn out speech, Emma started to poke her, trying to see if she could get the doctor's attention. She kept thinking about Gabe. Why was her life turning so weird all of a sudden? A month ago, she had just been a waitress. Now ghosts, blood spells, and weird t.v games created by the guy she was dating were all happening, all in the same day. And she was starting to get scared that she wasn't going crazy. The thought that this was _real_ was becoming a lot freakier than going crazy was.

Walking farther down the hall, they reached a man who asked Dean about his wife's face transplant. After telling him angrily that none of what was happening was real, they kept walking. That's when Emma heard the gun shot. Dean grabbed at his back.

"It's real. It's real." He said, getting on his knees. Emma bent down to try to help.

"Hey! We need a doctor!" Shouted Sam.

"You _are_ the doctor, Sam!" Emma told him. "Maybe this is supposed to be part of the game or whatever he was talking about."

Suddenly, they were in an operating room. Emma looked around, wondering how she got there. Well, to be specific, Sam and Dean were in an operating room. She was in the scrubbing station, next to the slapping doctor.

"So how do you like the game so far?" asked a voice behind her. She spun around.

"Who are you really?" Emma asked angrily.

Gabe shrugged. "Like I said. I'm the Trickster. The real question is, how did you get mixed up with these two? I thought you were at a funeral or something."

"My plans changed. Now get the hell away from me." Emma spat at him.

"Hey, now, that's not very fair." He said in a lighthearted voice.

"You know what's not fair? This day. This day isn't fair. Two guys kidnap me, do something weird with my blood, a guy in a trench coat appears out of thin air, I get sucked into _freaking t.v land by YOU, _and apparently I'm invisible to everyone except you and those two. Oh, and you take my voice away. Do you know how weird that is?"

"Oh, come on! If it's that important to you, I'll let you play in the next round. It will be fully intractable. Everybody will be able to see you and everything."

"I don't want to play your stupid game."

"Too late!" Gabe said, snapping his fingers. All ready set you up. And besides, I couldn't let you tell them you know me. That would ruin the game!"

"I apparently _don't _know you. And I wasn't going to tell them anyway. They don't seem to like you, so the fact that we knew each other probably wasn't going to fly over well."

"That's great. Stick to that line of thinking, and you'll do great. Telling lies straight off, you'll fit right in with those two."

"Go away." Emma demanded. Her headache was getting worse.

"Fine, fine, I'll leave." He raised his hand, about to snap his fingers. "Just remember. I tried to get you out of this. They're the ones who sucked you back in." For the first time since getting into the 'game', he actually looked serious. He snapped his fingers.

"Wait, what do you mean _back_ in? I've never met them!" Emma shouted. She sighed. "Why won't anyone ever _answer _me?" Suddenly the lights started dimming, and there was a chanting noise, and everything went dark.


	31. Chapter 31

Suddenly Emma found herself on a glowing stage. She looked around. '_How did we get here?_' she wondered. As soon as she looked down at what she was wearing, she forgot about that thought. Her jeans and tank top had turned into a bright orange mini skirt and what looked like a zip up sports bra. Both were made of a shiny plastic looking material. And she was wearing the tallest white pair of go-go boots that she had ever seen. She raised her head to look for Dean and Sam. Their clothes remained the same, however, they were in what looked like giant ski boots that were bolted to the floor.

"Sam, Dean, where are we?" Emma wondered. She wanted to walk over to where they were, but the height of the boots heel made her nervous.

Before they could answer, a Japanese man came running onstage out of two sliding doors. Fog, lights, and the roar of an invisible audience marked his entrance. He ran to the center of the stage, yelling in Japanese and made a fist punching gesture up. Emma thought she heard the word 'nutcracker'. He turned to Sam, and appeared to ask him a question. As Sam tried to tell the host that he didn't understand Japanese, Emma saw a countdown appear on the other side of the room reach zero.

"I am sorry, Sam Winchester," the man said in a heavily accented voice. His laugh a second later contradicted his words. Suddenly, a ball attached to a lever slammed up into an area that made Emma understand why the game was called 'Nutcracker'.

Emma tried not to laugh. She really did try. Luckily neither of the boys saw her biting her lip behind them. As Dean began freaking out about what might happen to him soon, Emma saw a girl to the left of her holding up a bag of chips. The host was talking to her. While they were distracted, Emma tried to find a way to escape. She started teetering carefully towards the door that the man had run out of, seeing if it would open for her. She nearly fell twice. '_If I get my hands on that jerk, I'm gonna wring his stupid neck, Trickster or not.'_ Not that she really knew what a trickster was. Besides being a dick.

Before she could reach them, however, the doors sprung open, and the man who had appeared in the alleyway walked out. Emma was so startled that she actually _did_ fall down this time. He looked over at her, and then at the boys.

"Uh, what are you doing here?" He asked the boys, ignoring Emma.

"No, don't try to help me or anything, I got this." Emma muttered, struggling quickly to her feet.

"Us, what are _you _doing here, Cas?" Dean answered.

"Looking for you, you've been missing for days."

'_Days? How has it been days? What's Sarah going to think?' _Sarah had freaked out the last time Emma had lost her phone for a day. What would she think if Emma disappeared from her Uncle's memorial?

Cas walked over to where Emma was standing, and led her closer to the boys.

"Lets go," he demanded, reaching for the boys. Before he could touch them, they disappeared in a flash of static just like Gabe had.

"No, no, no." The Host approached the trio wagging his finger. "Mr. Trickster does not like pretty boy angels." He switched back to his native language, talking to where the audience would have been. It was very disconcerting, hearing that many people, and not seeing them.

The Host turned to Dean. Once again, he asked him a question in Japanese, and the countdown began. Dean began to panic.

"What do I do? What do I do? I don't wanna get hit in the nuts! Emma, get me out of here! Please!" Dean asked in a panicky voice. She quickly reached for the bindings of the boots. As soon as she touched them, however, a shock ran through her arm.

"Ow! Son of a Bitch!" Emma swore. She shook her hands. "Sorry. No escape that way."

"Wait a minute!" Sam exclaimed. "Back in Dr. Sexy, I played a doctor!"

"Yeah, so?" Dean asked, looking at the clock. Emma saw where Sam was going with his idea.

"No, yeah, he's right! He played the role that- that the Trickster wanted you to play. Maybe you just have to go along with it."

"Along with what?"

Sam raised his hands. "With the game! Just answer the question!"

"I don't know Japanese!" Dean shouted angrily.

"Try!" Emma and Sam said in unison.

Dean made a frustrated noise and slammed his hand down on the buzzer. Looking at the Host, he began to answer, slowly and haltingly. It came out in perfect Japanese.

The Host paused for a moment, and then yelled out, "Dean Winchester… Nutcracker chaaampiooon!" The invisible audience began cheering wildly.

"How did you do that?" Sam asked in wonder.

"I have no idea." Dean answered from the corner of his mouth.

"So that's it." Emma said. "We just have to play our roles, and we survive. But for how long?"

The two men looked at each other, unsure.

"I have no idea." Sam stated.

A few minutes later, Emma found herself in a living room, sitting on a couch next to an old man. Or rather, it was the set of a living room. Three scenes had been set up in a circle. Emma couldn't actually tell where one began and another ended, it was so flawlessly put together. Which was saying something, since the other two sets were outside. It was an illusion, but it was a flawless illusion, she would give Gabe that much.

To the left of her was a woman doing yoga by a lake. To the left of that, and to the right of Emma, was a basketball court in the middle of a park. Sam and Dean were playing a game of basketball. In the middle of the circle was a wraparound television screen, with a line of what looked like dialogue. _Okay. Gabe want's us to play our roles. I can do that. Easy._ She hoped.

The woman doing yoga started first.

"I've got genital herpes." _Oh god. Please no. _Emma thought, eying the old man besides her. _Please don't say it._

He did. "I've got genital herpes." _Ewwwww, I don't want to play this role! This is a stupid game!_

"Really?" Sam asked, looking at the screen.

"Come on, you guys, you were the one who said we needed to play our roles." Dean replied, looking relieved he didn't have to say anything.

"Fine." Sam sighed. "I've got…genital…herpes."

The yoga lady spoke again. "I tried to be responsible."

The old man looked over at Emma and gave a wry looking grin as he grabbed for her hand. "Boy, did I try."

Emma snatched her hand away. "Don't touch me. You're old enough to be my grandfather." She saw Dean glare at her, and sighed. She reached for the old man's hand again. _Gabe, I'm gonna kick your ass for this! I liked it so much better when no one could see me._

"But now I take twice daily Herpexia, to reduce my chances of passing it on." Sam continued, looking like he wanted to kill Gabe as badly as Emma did.

"Ask your doctor to see if twice daily herpexia is right for you."

The old man pulled Emma up from the couch. Not noticing the look of distress on her face, he started leading her into a dance, as Dean did a voice over the scenes of the woman doing yoga, Emma dancing, and Sam dribbling the ball.

"I'm doing all I can to slightly lessen the spread of…of…genital…herpes. And that's a good thing," said Sam, as he stopped dribbling. He looked like he wanted to shoot himself. Emma knew the feeling. She was going to need a big bucket of mind bleach to get this image out of her mind.

_What's this? ANOTHER UPDATE? Wow, you guys are getting spoiled. I just really want to thank all of the people who have reviewed and favorited and put this story on their alert lists. You guys all make writing this story so much fun and worthwhile. The emails I get just brighten my day. I would really like to thank Maat, matt-hardy-lover-101, AuntMo, and Maddy Love Castiel, among all the rest of my reviewers, for almost always saying something for every update. You are all amazing._


	32. I swear this was going to be an update

_Author's note_

_I know, I know. It's been two years and no update. I don't have an excuse, but the reason there's no update TONIGHT is because of the jack ass who stole my laptop, along with like 5 chapters that I had started writing. That's right, I'm back! And tomorrow will have a borrowed laptop, and a real, honest to goodness chapter. That this would have been but my phone (which I'm writing this on, that's how much I wanted to update) decided to be the second jack ass of the week and deleted my whole work, and I'm just too tired to do it again ATM. But yes. I'm so sorry it's taken this long, but I am so excited to begin this again, and i just had to share with you guys. See you tomorrow!_


	33. Chapter 33

Emma blinked, and once again, she was in a new spot. She was outside what looked like a sleazy, cheap motel. The colors were too bright, giving the entire world an almost cartoonish quality. She looked down. Her grandma clothes were gone, but her new maid outfit that looked like something out of a French porno, made her miss the old mothball house jacket. She looked up as a woman exited a door halfway across the row of rooms. She was dressed in nothing but heels and a matching bra and pantie set. As she walked towards the parking lot, she slowly disolved into mist. _Guess this must be stage left._ She grabbed her cleaning cart, and gritting her teeth, headed towards the room. Before she reached it, however, the man in the trench coat popped out of nowhere again, and headed into the room. She could hear cheers coming from somewhere.

"Finally, a moment alone." Emma raised her head and spun, creating a fist as she did. When she saw who it was, she glared, and giving it all she had, punched his smug face. It was the first punch she had ever thrown, but it had been a powerful one. At least she had thought. While her hand was throbbing, along with her head _again,_ he had barelz flinched. "Come on, that's not going to work on me. My world, my rules. " Rubbing her hand, _and _god_, they make that look so much easier on tv, why would anyone ever do that, _she pushed him away. "Go to hell. I don´t know whatgame you're playing, but you need to leave me out of it. Just…Just let me go back. "

Gabe looked almost sorry. "Wish I could, Sweet Cheeks. Still haven´t figured out that spell they cast yet. " He grabbed her fist, and rubbed it. The pain was instantly gone. "Ask those two bruisers how to throw a fist next time. Although, " he gave a dramatic sigh, "I guess they'll make it so you remember soon enough, spoil sports." He stepped back. "Now if you'll just wait here one moment…" He bounded off towards the open door, and just before he reached it, spun around. "By the way...nice dress." He winked. She growled and then followed him, tripping slightly in the ridiculous heels he had put on her. When she got to the door, the man in the trench coat was gone. Gabe, the Trickster, whoever he was, was assuring that hed live, maybe, to the sound of canned laughter. _And they were still talking about the damn game. _

"Oh, you know. Sam, starring as Lucifer. Dean, starring as Michael." Gabe paused, letting that sink in, and then went on, as if talking about satan was the most obvious thing in the world, went on. "Your celebrity death match. Play your roles."

Emma interupted. "Okay, what does _the devil_ have to do with any of this? Besides the fact that I'm obviously in hell, I mean."

"It's…a long story." Sam said, awkwardly, as Dean and Gabe continued bickering. She watched silently as Gabe was apparantly pushed just a bit too far by something Dean had said.

"Don't you ever, ever presume to know what I am. Now listen very closely. Here's what's gonna happen. You're gonna suck it up, accept your responsibilities, and play the roles that destiny has chosen for you."

The room was silent for a moment. "Yeah, well, destiny can suck it. We played your game, now let us out." Emma finally blurted out.

Gabe rolled his eyes. "Sorry, angel face. This is bigger than any of us. What's going to happen, will happen. These two screwballs should know that by now."

"And if we refuse anyways?" Sam asked.

Gave shrugged. "Two hundred channels...and nothing's on." And with that, he snapped his fingers again.


End file.
